Maximals Reborn II: The Predacons
by Dracannia
Summary: SEQUEL WARNING! Several months later, the Maximals find themselves as the greatest superhero team in the East Coast. They think beating a few Deepticons off Earth isn't so bad, but then they meet their match: the Predacons.
1. School's In

A couple of months later, the Maximals find themselves as the greatest superhero team in the East Coast. They think all's great with just beating a few Decepticons away form Earth, but the worst comes when they meet their match; the Predacons. The fight against wrong-doing continues on as they find out what the Predacons are actually after... (mostly based on Animated continuity)

Chapter I

Brianna packed up the rest of her supplies. Let's see…four binders, four notebooks, a truck-load of pencils, five different colored highlighters, college ruled paper already in the binders, and black pens. Was that it? Wait! Forgot the most annoying part of all! The I.D. badge. Because of all the crap that teenagers pulled, they had to wear I.D. badges.

"Hey, sis," her sibling called from the other room. "You know what today's song is?"

"What, Brittany?"

"_It's the woooorst daaaay eeevveerrrrrrrr!_"

"Exactly! At least we're on the same page!"

Brittany gave out a dramatic and very fake gasp. "Get out of here!"

"You know what _I _call this day?" their mother, Pam, shouted from the living room. "_It's the most wonderful time…of the year!_"

"Be quiet, Mom! You're tone deaf!" Brianna teased. She heard a soft "whatever" and checked her bag again. Today was the first day of high school for her. To Brittany, Cari, Cody, Andre, and even William, it was the first day of middle school. None of them felt like going so soon, especially since they were working shifts as the famous band of techno-organics fighting some pissed off Decepticons. Brianna looked over at the clock and noticed that the bus was to be at the stop in ten minutes.

"Tigress, get your flaming rear in gear! We gotta move it!" she shouted. The twelve-year old girl listened and swung her backpack over one shoulder. Both sisters raced out to the living room, but their mother stopped them before one could get to the door handle.

"Wait! I want a picture!" she said. The woman grabbed the camera off the dining room table.

"Come one, Mom, we'll miss it!" Brittany whined.

"Yeah, can't this wait 'till _after _school?" Brianna complained.

"How about this; if I don't get a picture now, you won't eat the cupcakes to celebrate the first day of school when you get back."

"Smile, ladies!" Brittany said in a preppy way, holding a pose.

*

The sisters walked to their bus stop to find they were actually a lot earlier than they intended. They noticed four other kids, high school kids like Brianna, waiting as well. One boy with long blonde hair covering his face and black shirt on bent over to get a good look at them.

"Aren't you two the dragon and tiger from the Maximals?" he asked.

Brianna sighed. "Yes, random stranger, we are…" she groaned.

"That's so awesome!"

"Yo, yo!" said the other boy. "Can you show us your powers?"

"Sorry, not in human form. Plus, it's kind of dangerous to use Tigress' fire powers near the trees."

"Aw, come on! We just wanna see them!"

"Boy, you better shut up before I stick a foot up your--!" Brittany started, cut off by her sister.

"That's just what they want, kid, shrug it off," she said. Brianna knew how well Brittany's powers had improved, as well as the other Maximals and herself. For Tigress, she could shoot it from all directions and not just the mouth; Goldwing, all electricity(like the blackout that happened on his street), not lightening from hands; Panthora, the newest power to add to her visions was telekinesis; Darkjaw could manipulate water in the air so he wouldn't need to be near a body of it; Nightfang could make some dreams come to life, but that sucked a lot of energy out of him; Biba was stronger than a wrestling champ and could punch through metal; and Icefire could make ice from thin air out of the palm of her hand. Having powers was the bomb!

"Just a little bit?" the blonde boy begged. Icefire shot him a look, both of her eyes turning electric blue; even the white sections with the pupils. The boy backed off a bit and his friend got behind him. Two of the girls standing from some other part of street had looked at them with frightened eyes.

"You've seen us on the news, you know what we can do, you've _seen_ what we can do, you know who we are, one of them is attending the same school. What more do you want?" the dragon growled. The boys backed up some more as her eyes changed back to normal, blue-green, human eyes. She looked at her sister. "That's all you gotta do."

*

Both sisters stopped at the high school; Brittany had to meet up with a connection to another bus to get to her school. Brianna followed everyone to the courtyard outside the cafeteria and sat on a bench. She took out her map of the school and her schedule.

"Okay, homeroom's C103, and I'm over here…Okay, which way's north?" She looked for the rising sun to determine where east was so she could find north. She turned the map so it was facing her own direction. At the top of the map had the football field, so she looked straight out to see it. "Okay, good! Now, take a walk across the lawn, make a …" She turned the map to the side to follow. "…a right. Keep going until the third door to C wing and walk in! All right, simple! I think…What's the next class?…Jesus, where's _that _at?!"

"X110 is in the guidance building," said a male voice behind her. She turned around to see a tall African-American boy standing above her, his long braided hair against his cheeks. "It's over that way, down the hall. You can't miss it; they have the door labeled."

"Thanks, mister…?"

"My name is Abraxas."

"Whoa! That's a cool name! What is it? Hebrew?"

"African."

"Oh. Sounded like it was from the Bible or something…What grade are you in?"

"Sophomore. So we won't be seeing each other much."

"Hm. Depends. I'm in all honors class with some other sophomores and juniors," the girl smirked. "Compare my list to yours; what classes do we have?"

Abraxas obeyed order and took out his schedule from his pocket. Before he opened it, he asked Brianna for her name.

"Oh, right! Stupid me. I'm Brianna Summers." She held out a hand and the boy accepted it to shake.

"Like the dragon?" he asked.

"_Exactly!_" she whispered loudly. Abraxas stretched a smile across his dark face.

"I'm shaking hands with a goddess," he complimented. Brianna felt her face turn red.

"Well, I wouldn't say a goddess, but thanks! Now, about the classes…?" Apparently the only class they had together was the computer lab, first period. "Aw, that sucks!" she moaned.

"Entirely. Some of _your _classes involve--"

"Hey, X-ray!" a girl shouted. She was an Asian barely as tall as Abraxas and wearing black and white clothing.

"--that girl…"

The girl ran up to her friend and hugged him form the side for two full seconds. "How are you, babe?"

"Stop calling me 'babe'…" he groaned.

"Okay, babe. Hey! Who's this!" She pointed to Brianna. "Wait a second, don't tell me! Icefire, right?"

"Uh, yeah, you--Oh, who am I kidding, of course you know me."

"Totally! I saw the first fight you guys had downtown, I was there! That was so cool how all of you mashed together and made that _huge _thing! That--that chimera thing!"

"When that happens, we're called Bestial," Brianna corrected.

"Bestial. Make that up yourself?"

"Nah, Primus did. He just told me."

"Who?"

Brianna sighed. She didn't like telling the same stories over again to new friends, and now there wasn't enough time since they heard the bell ring.

"Holy crap, that sounds like a hotel room in the morning," Brianna groaned. "Is that how it always sounds?"

"Pretty much," the girl sighed. "Oh! By the way, I'm Luli. Luli Chen."

"Brianna Summers. Where's your class?"

"Computer."

"I'll follow _you_."

Luli chuckled, grabbed Abraxas by the arm and skipped away, having Brianna follow several feet behind. To the Maximal leader, this girl was more insane than her, and maybe more insane than Blitzwing. Scratch that, _no one _could be crazier than Blitzwing. Luli was a talkative girl, Abraxas was sort of quiet, and Brianna was just the third wheel. Middle school all over again; there was no difference with Eaglewood.

xXx

Author's Note: Eh, first chapter's never much to comment on. For some pronounciation: Abraxas (ah*BRACKS*us) Luli (LOO*lee) and some others to come. Ain't Abraxas a cool name or what?


	2. Warning

Chapter II

Brittany walked inside the school. It wasn't so scary since she had been here a few times with her sister before. They went over the teachers some time, none of them being Brianna's sixth grade teachers back when she was in, and the map to figure out where she would turn and where she would go. Still, it was nerve racking.

"Brittany! Over here!" someone shouted. Brittany turned to see her cousins standing in their own little group and waving to her. The girl ran over to say hello.

"I haven't seen you guys since Tallahassee!" she said. "How've you guys been?"

"Tired, hungry," Andre answered.

"And totally bummed!" William finished.

"We've had no fun for a week! When is there going to be another Decepticon punk around here?" Cody complained. Cari patted her brother's shoulder.

"It's okay, bubba, you'll beat someone up later," she teased. She looked back to her cousin. "So, Brittany, you scared?"

"A little…"

"Hey! Let's see if we have any classes together!" All of them checked to see their schedules and were surprised at who had classes with which person. Lie how Cody, William, and Andre were all in math together, so they could help each other out, and it was no surprise that Brittany and Cari were placed in Drama together.

"Oh my God! Is it really you?!" a girl shouted from another direction. All of them looked out to see a girl dressed nearly completely in purple run up to them. "I saw you guys on TV! You're the Maximals!"

"Not so loud!" Andre hushed. Too late. Half the heads in the building turned to see them and started murmuring. "See? Now they'll never leave us alone!"

"Sorry." She looked at Cody. "Aren't you the second-in-command wolf boy?"

"Wha'? Me?" he said, pointing to himself.

"Yeah! You're Nightfang! I saw the way you tore the arm off that skinny little back robot. That was so cool!"

William leaned over to the Maximal cats. "Looks like we've got ourselves a number one fan," he whispered. The girls giggled to each other. There was no doubt he could've been right. The Maximals had been around a lot of fans, but this chick was crazy!

"And you're Tigress!" she continued, pointing to Brittany. "_Love _the way you used those fireballs to confuse them."

"Um, thanks, I guess," Brittany murmured. She whispered to her cousin, "She's _loco_, man!"

"Oh! Wait, I'm being _so _rude! My name's Fawn. Fawn Doe!" She took out her hand, letting Andre be the first to shake it.

"Andre Jones."

No one else wanted to shake hands with her, but the wolf thought it was a polite gesture, so he did so as well.

"Cody Harris; Nightfang."

Fawn seemed to shrink down a bit and sighed. "Oh, that is so cool… Honestly I think wolves are the best. No lie!"

Cody chuckled. "Well, I believe you!" _All right, she's a nut._

"Do you think…we have any classes together?" she said with a cute smile on her face. Cody seemed to blush as well but took out his schedule for her to compare classes; math, science, language arts. That was it. "Yay! We have three classes!"

Cody didn't dare to say anything. He knew that she would be on their tail for quite some time before she ever got tired of them. Heck, by the way this girl acted, she'd _never _get tired of having her favorite techno-organic dog walking around the same school.

"See you in first period!" she called, skipping away to another group. The Maximals looked at each other. William motioned his finger going backwards around his ear and Brittany pretending she was drinking a beer and moved around lazily after the fake sip.

*

Brianna came home two hours before Brittany (because she was on a shorter schedule than her sister and school started earlier) and placed her bag on the couch.

"Holy crap, that was killer!" she groaned, plopping her butt on the sofa. "Should've taken a left here, should've kept going on this end; that was torture! Studying that map is like having to study for a final exam!"

Brianna's dog, Shadow, came running up to her, after hearing her voice. His face nearly came up to her stomach, looking like he sniffing her. Brianna held her arms out for him to inspect.

"Am I clear, officer?" she joked. Shadow was done sniffing and walked back to the other end of the house. "Yeah, well, screw you, too! Men…" She reached into her backpack to look at all the syllabus' she received from her classes. Dang, how much stuff did a school even need?! She was interrupted by her mom coming in the living room with her pajamas on. Obviously she had to work tonight and slept the day away.

"Hey, Brianna," she moaned.

"Hey, Mom. Got some fun papers for you to sign."

"Great!" she said sarcastically. "Wait until I get my coffee, all right?" Parents _always_ (and this was a rule) had to have their coffee first before anything. "How was school?"

"Uh, two friends, both sophomores."

"See? They're in honors class! I didn't stick you with the idiots!"

"Yay, mama! Anyway, the guy was pretty helpful. He--"

"Wait, a guy? How old is he?"

Brianna sighed. "First I wanna say I've seen enough crap on TV to know better and he's fifteen years old. His name's Abraxas."

"Abracadabra?"

"No! Abraxas! It's an African name! I think I might look it up, it's even cooler when you see what he looks like. He's kind of like one of those Jamaican guys with the long braids and skin as dark as Akon. It's so cool!"

"Just be careful around him. I heard that--"

"Yeah, yeah, my bio teach told me too." She gave an impression of her biology teacher. "'To the upper class boys, you girls are not freshman, you're fresh _meat_. Boys are bad, remember that.' Happy?"

"Not sure…When did your bus get here?"

"Eh, about two fifteen. Two hours without Brittany every weekday, woo hoo!"

"Woo…" her mom said unenthusiastically. She took a couple of sips of her coffee while Brianna went to go find her laptop. She checked the email only to find a bunch of crap from FaceBook and not much from FanFiction. The weird about FaceBook was that some of the people from her last school seemed to remember her while she didn't think they knew she existed. Again, strange…

Someone knocked at the door and Brianna jumped up to get it. She looked out the window from the top of the door to see Aries, the twelve year old Chosen Maximal. How long had it been since they last talked. Brianna opened the door, but she kept the screen door closed.

"Do you have any drugs on you, miss?" she teased.

Aries sighed and turned her jean pockets inside out, as well as her jacket. Brianna opened up th screen door to let her in.

"How you doin', chick!" she cried. "Mom, it's Aries! Remember?"

"The pink lion? Sure!"

"Hey, Aries, what brings you here? Felt like saying hi, or what?"

"Actually, I got some bad news…"

"What kind of bad news? No! Don't tell me! Jericho got arrested?"

"No, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did!" Aries laughed. "Anyway, stick to subject, please."

"Sorry, my bad. Go on…"

Aries pointed to the couch to ask to sit down. Brianna told her to go ahead and she sat down on the sofa looking tensed and terrified. The dragon had never seen her like this in a while. Feeling as though this was something pretty intense, she sat down in the rocking chair across from Aries.

"The reason I came here is to warn you. There's something else out there that's like us, but more deadly. Possibly fatal to all of us; all the Maximals."

"Come on, we've been fighting these guys since spring break! What could they do to us now?"

"You don't understand. We haven't gone up against anything like this. There're seven savage beats out there. What does that remind you of?"

Brianna's eyes went wide and she sat on the edge of her seat. "Wait, are you saying there's seven more of us out there?"

"They're just as strong as us, and they emerged the same way we did. They're just not into the crime fighting as we are. They kill like Decepticons."

"Seven kids with the All Spark…I know they didn't just appear right now, correct?"

"Yeah. Jericho and I have been sensing them for some time now and wasn't sure how to tell you. Figured I could tell you now before it was too late. I even have names if you want to hear them."

The Maximal leader wasn't sure. Just getting news that there was a group just as good as them out there. She didn't think there could be, but there were no angels without demons, right?

"I think I'll sit that out for a bit," she answered. "Do they have a team name?"

"They call themselves the Predacons."

xXx

Author's Note: Check in at YouTube to see what the characters look like! .com/watch?v=RQAxhPHk_OY Includes my version of the Predacons!

So, who's itching to know what'll happen in the story later on? Well, too bad! You have to read! You can't just try and cheat like we all tried to do when _Revenge of the Fallen_ came out! XD And if you like my stories and feel as though it could use more reveiws (or maybe, hopefully, turned into a movie) pass it on to other people, be it YouTube, FanFic, FaceBook, MySpace, anything!


	3. Predacons

Chapter III

"Ahh…It feels great to be back home!" said the mechanical panda bear as she found a patch of dirt to sit in. A red fox followed her inside and looked at her.

"Don't look so lazy, Yin-Yang," he growled. "What if he finds you sitting around here doing nothing…_again_?"

"I'll take my freaking chances," Yin-Yang muttered, putting her arms behind her head and held her head high. A hiss came from deeper into the cave as a green cobra slithered up.

"You two are so lazy!" she hissed. "He'll throw a fit once he sees that you two are late!"

"Hey! We got here before the brats, didn't we?!" Yin-Yang shouted. "Besides, Foxtrot and I wanted to get an ice cream, so we stopped by a Dairy Queen! It's so amazing how many people took us for a couple."

"Rather disturbing if you ask me…" Foxtrot grumbled.

"Enough!" the snake roared, changing into a more humanoid form. "He's waiting for you. He has another location we need to check."

"I don't see why it's _us _that has to do the work! We've been picking up signals from across the world and he hasn't gone to a single one!" the panda shouted.

"Believe me, he's coming this time," the snake smiled.

"Why's that, Slyther?" Foxtrot dared to ask. Slyther's smile became so wide you could see her fanged teeth.

"Because the next piece is in Jacksonville."

*

"Predacons, huh?" Brianna repeated. "Well, what are they doing here?"

"I still don't know," Aries said with a frightened tone. "All I know is that they've been around the globe several times looking for something, but I don't know what! Heck, I can't even figure out where they live!"

"Yo, easy, girl," Brianna shushed. "No need to be so upset. Aww, come on, no more tears!"

"I can't help it! I just feel like we're so useless!" the pink-haired girl cried. "All I know are names and that they've been looking for something that's fatal to the planet!"

"Hey! There you go! _I _didn't know it was fatal, so I'm glad you told me!" Brianna said, trying to sound a bit happy to cheer her up. It worked only slightly and Aries wiped some of her tears away. These Predacons must've been something big if it scared Aries this much. "Anything else?"

"I'll call you when I get anything," Aries whimpered as she stood up. Brianna held the door for her, said good-bye, and let Aries walk by herself down the street. Something bad was going to happen, she was sure of it. Before she closed the door, Brittany ran in and slammed her backpack onto the couch.

"Hey, Brianna!" she said, in a weird chipper voice.

"Let me guess, you made a friend?"

"Actually, I made three! There's one crazy girl who's obsessed with Cody, her name's Fawn Doe, ain't that funny? There's a girl, she's kind of small, she likes birds, so you can guess she likes Andre, and her name's Ashley Wright. Kind of like the brothers who made the airplane. Do you think she might be a descendent? Anyway, the last one's a guy, he's small as well, and he's just too adorable! His name's Noah Springs. Ooh! I feel like hugging him each time I see him!"

"Well, sounds like you had fun! Would you care long enough to hear about my friends?"

"You've got friends?! Nah, I'm just kidding. Sure! Who are they?"

"The only terrible thing is that they're all older than me. I met a dude, first ten minutes--"

"Is he cute?"

"Well, he's…he's buff, I'll give him that. Anyway, his name's Abraxas Tulsa. And before you ask me, the name is African. There was a girl, her name's Luli Chen, she's crazy, too. And Gabryjela Allen, let me show you how she spells her name later, and it seems like she's the athletic type. Last but not least, some dude who bumped into me and picked up my books, Trevino Stridence."

"Ooh! That sounds hot!"

"Yeah, tell me about it! At the end of the day, when I kept shaking like a leaf, he asked if I needed some warmth, you know, he wanted to give me a hug, but I thought it was weird and said no."

"What is wrong with you?! He's hot for God's sake!"

"I know! But he didn't listen to me (typical male) and put his arms around me! God, I thought I was going to _melt_,he was so warm! He's like a giant walking furnace!"

"That's so not fricking fair!" Brittany shouted out. "You are so lucky, girl!"

"You're calling _me_ lucky?" Brianna emphasized. "Since you were in third grade you've had childish break-ups!"

"Not true."

"Oh yeah? You 'broke up' with two guys in summer camp in the last full year; you've had two black twins fall for you and one kiss ya on the cheek; and I think I remember something last year in your fifth grade that someone stuffed an anonymous love note into your book bag. As for me? ZIPPO! If I ever meet the right guy, I'll thank Him until the day I die!"

"You'll thank the dude?"

"No! The big man upstairs! The Almighty!"

"Oh, why didn't you say so?"

"Clueless," the teenager muttered. She grabbed the television remote from the arm of the couch and turned on the TV to the news. Brittany kept groaning that she didn't want to she this, but Brianna had heard something that caught her attention.

"_That's right, some new Maximals are on the run, but they seem to be _destroying _Jacksonville. As you can see from this footage, they're tearing into the ground at North Davis Street, right in front of LaVilla School of the Arts._"

"Isn't that where we…?" Brittany trailed off, not wanting to even think it.

"Yep," Brianna finished. "Aries and Jericho might've sensed it by now; they're probably contacting the others already. But you're not going."

"Aww! Why not?"

"To be perfectly honest, you're not the greatest person to be around when you get angry in an urban area. All we need is the Harris rank and Andre.

*

"We've been looking for thirty minutes and _still _no sign of that stinking piece of the slagger!" Yin-yang complained.

"Hey, do you want your head torn off?" said a purple hyena with pink spots. "He might be pissed off at you and kill you when he gets the chance."

"You actually think that Yin-Yang cares about that?" Slyther smirked. She pounded at the ground once more and heard a metallic bang. "I think I got it!"

"Mind handing it over?" said a male voice behind her. She turned around only to receive a hard slash on her face. "Name's Nightfang, bee-otch! Tell us what you're doing here or I'll rip your tail right off your butt!"

"How about if I give you a biscuit, will you do a trick for me?" said hyena cutely. Nightfang turned to her and just stared at her with a weird expression. "Will ya? My name's Crack-Up."

"Why the heck do they call you that?" the wolf dared to ask. The hyena stared to laugh wildly and it turned into an electronic hum. The it became so irritating that it drove Nightfang insane. The blue wolf lashed out at the hyena, but his claws went straight through. Arms from behind held him and pinned hi down.

"That's why! You wanna know the trick?" the hyena whispered. "My laugh sends vibrations into your head and creates a vision only my target can see. Isn't it cool?!"

"Get off me, you freak!" Nightfang roared. The wolf's feline sister helped him and threw the purple hyena off of him and unto the ground. "Thanks…"

"No prob, Bob. So, who's the green chick you were growling at?"

"It's Slyther, you wimpy kid," the snake answered. She stood up and quickly changed into her animal form that made her look like a lime version of Jafar on Aladdin. "What's yours?"

"Panthora! Now get your face down here so I can rip it!"

"I'd like to see you try!" the snake hissed, baring her long fangs. Quick as a lightening bolt, she lashed forward to try to bite the panther. Panthora dodged it just in time to get a scratch on her right arm. Slyther looked at the black cat and smiled wickedly. "Nice moves, for an eleven-year old."

"Nice agility, for a _hag_!" This time, Panthora wasn't quick enough and was caught on her left leg. A painful roar sounded from her throat and she clawed at the snake to try and get her off. Her arms stopped when they were held back by another Predacon.

"While we're on a first name basis, my name is Foxtrot," said the tall Predacon. "The harder you struggle, the more she'll hold on."

"You're _sharing _information with me now?" the panther growled. She felt Slyther slowly retract her jaws and glare straight into her eyes. Panthora went into a trance and almost fell asleep when the snake was hit by a large boulder.

"Let go of sissy!" said a small voice.

"Ah, great, it's the little brat!" Crack-Up shouted. "I'll get the goofball." She shifted into her form and pounced at the monkey. Biba reacted by stomping her foot on the ground to create a rock shield in front of her, making the hyena land face-first into it.

"Ow!" she whined. "You broke my nose!"

"Get ova it!" Biba snapped. "Sissy, you okay?"

"I told you, on mission time my name is Panthora."

"Pandora. Okay!"

"No! Not like the box lady!"

She didn't have a chance to correct her sister again when her wolf brother jumped in front to protect her from another lash of Slyther's. He held her two large fangs in his paws and used his strength to keep her back.

"Let me guess, once I say 'where's Icefire?' she'll come out of the sky?" he joked.

"You know me all too well, cousin! Hey, get off me!" As Icefire, along with Goldwing, flew down, they were being chased by a red bird named Phoenix and a brown bat who introduced himself as Wingspan. "Goldwing, shock 'em already!"

The golden eagle obeyed immediately and threw a couple of lightening bolts at the to Predacon flyers. Wingspan was close to falling, but the red firebird ricocheted the attacks her fiery blasts. Icefire flew low towards the green snake and grabbed her by the upper neck, carrying her away.

"Let me go, Maximal!" Slyther hissed, shifting back into a two-legged form. "You won't be so brave once he comes back!"

"Who's 'he'?" the dragon asked. Before she could get a straight answer, she was hit in the side by a fireball, making her drop the snake. She thought it first as Phoenix, but it turned out to be something else almost entirely different. His body was bulked with pure strength and his color red and black like blood and soot, scaring Icefire straight into her insides. He was a red European dragon.

"The famous leader of the Maximals," he purred. "We're still into our introductions, so I'll end it. The name's Ironwing." He bowed in mid-air towards the female frost dragon.

"What do you want?" Icefire growled. Ironwing looked back at her with the same expression.

"I'm not going to monologue as we first meet," he snarled. "You're more brain than brawn; you'll figure it out soon enough."

"I don't want to find out!" Icefire let out a frosty blast at the red dragon, just in time to miss her primary target and freeze his left arm. Ironwing chuckled and clenched that hand into a fist to break the sheer cold block.

"You've trained yourself well!" he congratulated. "My turn." With a mighty roar, Ironwing forced out a rage of fire, singing the white-blue dragon's leg. She tried hard not to scream, to give him the satisfaction of calling her weak, so she released a full power attack from her limbs and her mouth of frost towards the Predacon leader. He tried so hard to dodge all of her attacks, but ended up getting caught in the wings and falling hard to the ground. Foxtrot caught up with him and helped him stand.

"We should fall back," he advised. "Yin-Yang's found a piece, we should leave while we can!"

"Good. Predacons, fall back!" Ironwing shouted, taking to the skies. The others followed close behind, Crack-Up blowing a kiss at Nightfang as she left. The wolf nearly blushed but was able to hide it with his dark plating.

"That was…odd," said Goldwing.

"You're telling me," Panthora agreed. Biba held onto her sister's leg like the small child she was.

"I don't like the red and black guy," she whimpered. "He wooks too much like Ith-fire."

"I'll say," Nightfang muttered. "And that purple dog-girl? I think she has a thing for me."

Panthora roared with laughter. "The crazy laughing girl? Falling for _you_?! First Fawn now Crack-Up! What's next? Abigail Breslin?"

"That fox said they found a piece," Icefire said, ignoring her teammates. "A piece of what? It can't be the All Spark. I never saw it break and the Chosen's told me that they hid it safe where not even _we _could find it."

"I'll admit, that _is _creepy…but I think I'm gonna go lay down somewhere," Goldwing answered followed by a yawn. "You guys woke me up from a nap and I'm still beat…"

"Yeah, I guess we all better get home before the press start bombarding us," the dragon agreed. The Maximals scattered to their different directions, going home. All the while, Icefire couldn't think of how familiar some of this seemed.

xXx

Author's Note: I swear to Primus, y'all will never see the truth coming! I've thought so hard about what would happen and it's killing me since I have to take this all one step at a time and make events that lead up to that. All writers out there, you know that feeling. Sucks, don't it? But if you might have an idea of what the Predacons are doing, send a review. In the meantime, just comment on what you think so far.

Not so trick question: Who are some of the Predacons? Unless you have the I.Q. of a brick you should be able to figure this out.

(For the impaired, since they're family, when they need a specific family out on the feild, they call for "rank" like how Icefire called for Harris rank; Biba, Panthora, and Nightfang. Young rank; her and Tigress. Jones rank; Goldwing and Darkjaw. Get it? Cool!)


	4. Food Fight!

Chapter IV

Brianna woke up the next day, not remembering that there ever was a last night. She turned over to the side to shut off her alarm clock that was set for six in the morning. Dang school board, making the high school start at seven thirty. Even though she was a crime fighter, she was no exception to the rules. Bummer…

Since her body wouldn't obey and sit straight up in the bed, Brianna rolled over until her body fell down to the carpet floor with a loud thud, making the dog outside the room jump up. The girl slowly stood up and waited for the stars in her vision to go away. Once every speck was gone, she dragged herself over to the kitchen to grab some breakfast. Brittany was already out of bed and dressed, now choking down on some Cap'n Crunch.

"When did you become a morning person?" she asked. Brittany swallowed her cereal before she gave an answer.

"Since I didn't want Mom to push me when I don't get up."

"There's some logic." Brianna reached for a bowl and the gallon of milk. She took the box of Crunch away from her sister and poured some into the bowl.

"Mom's working tonight," Brittany announced.

"Really? Who's baby-sitting?"

"Ally one."

They had to label two of their three baby-sitters. There was Allison Cumming and an Allison Mays. Cumming was a more wild girl and liked to play around with the girls. Mays was more of a silent girl and spoke when she only really wanted to. Every now and then both sitters would ask about the day and what's been going on in their superhero lives, which scared them all the same. Everyone's seen enough television or read enough comics to come to the conclusion that super powered heroes use their abilities whenever they're mad, and Brianna and Brittany were the kind of sisters that could get along one second and stick their tongues out another.

"I thought she didn't have a car yet," Brianna continued.

"No, no, that was Lizzie. Ally's got that orange pick-up, remember?"

"Oh, yeah! That car is _big_!"

"I know! I want a car like that!"

"Shoot, I want a Tesla Roadster. No! A Genesis Coupe! Sky blue."

"You sound more like Dad every day…"

Brianna laughed as she saw the time. The bus was going to be there in two minutes! The girl choked down her meal, told her sister to hurry it up, then both grabbed their backpacks and slung it over their shoulders. They were out the door before their mother had a chance to say good-bye.

Another thing the Maximals had practiced was shifting their bodies only slightly so they could have metal limbs while they were human-sized. Brianna grew out her wings while Brittany's tail and all four limbs had emerged. The human-tiger got on fours and ran like the devil was behind her. Brianna took off to the skies with her sister right below her. As they approached their stop, the bus was already parked and those same two boys saw them as they changed back into their true human forms.

"Not a word," Brianna growled as she passed them. Brittany took a hard step forward, making them jump, and giggled as she walked up the steps into the bus.

*

"Yo, Icefire, we're over here!" Luli shouted when she saw her freshman buddy enter the courtyard. Brianna waved to her and walked over to the bench. Abraxas was sitting down regularly, but Luli perched herself on top of the table.

"I told you not to call me that. I hate it when people stare at me!" Brianna whimpered.

"Hey, if I was a chick with powers, I'd want everyone to see!" She turned around as if her guy friend had said something, but he only glared at her. Brianna couldn't help but notice there was something more to that statement than Luli wanted her to know.

"Anyways, I saw the fight yesterday, on the news, though. That dragon boy got you pretty good!"

"Yeah, I admit, he caught me by surprise. I tried hard not to get scared and lose focus. I mean, it's pretty creepy; two rival dragons, battling it out, like it was King Arthur's time or something. It's insane!"

"Did you know why they were even doing that?" Abraxas asked. He looked curious enough to know, so Brianna figured he needed a straight answer.

"Well, they said they found a piece of something, but I don't know what it was."

"The All Spark?" Luli chimed in.

"No, I don't think so. The Chosen Maximals told us that they didn't destroy it, they hid it."

"Where is it? You know, so when those freaky other metal animals come back and find it, you have to know where it is." Okay, that was a little too suspicious.

"Honest to God truth? None of us know." Abraxas seemed to growl a bit. She thought a bit before she went on. From the looks in both of their eyes, she could tell that she shouldn't say anything more. "Well, uh…change of subject, but where is Gabryjela?"

"If I know her, she's looking for Trevino again…" Abraxas groaned.

"Yeah, that girl's always on the move for that hot stuff," Luli continued.

"Eh, Trevino's not _that _hot," Brianna shrugged. Truthfully, she didn't go for the guys who had millions of girls fall for him if he flashed a smile at them. She didn't want to be anywhere near those kinds of men because she knew she would get some dirty or jealous looks in return. Not to mention, she fell more for eyes and smile than she did for the body.

"Are you kidding me?!" Luli screeched. "The guy's buff!"

"Want me to leave you girls alone?" Abraxas smirked. He grabbed his books and almost stood up from the table when Luli held his arm.

"No! You're staying! Sit!"

"Yes, ma'am."

Brianna looked at them with a strange look. "You guys act like you date."

Abraxas shot her a look. She couldn't really tell by the long braided hair, but his eyes must've changed color. "Don't say that again," he growled. Brianna took a step back in surrender. It was just a thought.

"Oh my God!" Luli gasped. "Trevino! Hey! We're over here!"

"Don't call him over!" Brianna whispered harshly. She didn't like being around those tall and strong senior boys, especially when they had fan girls. Each time she saw him, and he looked back, he would smile at her. Then she would turn away so he wouldn't see her blush. Brianna swore to herself she would never fall for a guy that had too many people love him, but, hell, this was reality! The dude was hot!

Brianna turned her face to the side and pretended to look at something else as Trevino came by. Her plan didn't work when he put a hand to her chin and turned her face back towards him.

"Hello to you, too," he chuckled. Brianna couldn't help but smile and let out a weak laugh. Why did he have to be so charming?

"Hey, Trev," Abraxas said behind him. Trevino turned around and gave his friend a high-five shake (so I call it). "You finish the econ homework yet?"

"Not yet, but I'm almost done."

"Lemme guess, too busy hanging out with girls?" Luli teased. Brianna, feeling like a first grader compared to them, sat down at the table and took out her book she was to finish for English Honors.

"One girl: Gabryjela."

"You finally said yes to her?" Abraxas' eyes went wide.

"No, I didn't! I said yes to a date, but not BF/GF status."

"Too bad," Luli moaned. "If you _had _said yes then there won't be so many girls around here with a black eye."

Brianna tried to hold in a laugh. Knowing the mango-haired girl, she was the kind that would jealous all too easily. If some girl even caught a glance at Trevino, she'd run up to them and punch them in the face. The girl had been trying to go out with him ever since he was a sophomore, but the guy could care less.

Suddenly, the girl noticed that they had stopped talking and looked up. They were already on their way inside the building.

"Did the bell ring?" she shouted after them, shoving her book back into her bag. "You guys!" She ran after them as fast as she could with the bag hanging loosely on her shoulder.

*

"Hey, wolf boy!" Fawn called. She ran up to him and gave him a hug. "How are you? I heard about that fight yesterday. Wasn't that purple girl so cool?!"

"Annoying, actually," Cody groaned. He still didn't like the fact that he was beaten over a girl. Fawn grumped and kept talking.

"Well, Noah said he wants to speak to you. I have no clue what he wants, so get your blue tail over there before he comes here."

"Is he that bad?"

"No, just angry."

Cody sighed and walked towards the short, brown-haired boy leaning against the wall. He looked pretty mean for a little guy, and it was scary seeing him like that. Noah didn't get angry very often, so it had to be something bad.

"What do you want, Noah?" Cody groaned as he walked over.

"I want you to stay away from Fawn," the kid growled back.

"Well, then tell her to get off of me. _She's_ the one coming over, not me," the wolf said in his defense.

"Then you might as well leave the school."

"Okay, now you're just being plain cuckoo."

"Cody!" his sister called. Cody turned to see his sister waving at him. Next to her was Andre, who only smiled.

"Later, Noah," Cody said, then ran off. Andre asked what was up with Noah, and Cody gave a simple answer of "He's lost it."

Finally, the greatest time of the day, lunch. Probably the only time you got to talk to your friends and not get in trouble for it. But the worst part about having lunch at this middle school was that you stay at your "assigned tables", like you were back in the classroom. Cody had lunch with no other Maximals, and found out that Noah and Ashley were sitting at a table a few yards away. Lord forbid they would try to walk over. Too bad he didn't notice Fawn.

"Hey-a, Code man!" she said, sitting down next to him.

"Hi, Fawn. Aren't you supposed to be--?"

"I don't care. I like getting into trouble."

"Oh."

"So what did Noah want?" She took a bite out her cheeseburger.

"He just told me that you need to stay away from me."

Fawn started to laugh. "He's always been like that! He's got a bit of a crush on me, obviously. And he acts just like Gabryjela does to Trevino."

"Who?"

Fawn looked at him with widened eyes, like she shouldn't have said that in the first place. She handed her cheeseburger towards him. "Wanna bite?"

Cody held up a hand to show he didn't need it. "Who were you talking about?"

On the other side of the cafeteria, Noah saw Fawn talking to Cody, and that he was talking back. This angered him all too much that he heated up. Ashley patted his back to try and calm him down, but he kept growling and squeezed the milk out of its carton as he watched the Maximal and purple-haired girl talk.

"Noah, power it down a bit," Ashley murmured. Noah didn't listen to her and stepped on top of the table with a hand full of mashed potatoes. He threw I in Cody's direction. But Cody's senses fired up as he sensed the food aiming straight for him and ducked his head, making the white food land on the back of a tall eighth grader. The boy turned around to see who threw it at him and came to the conclusion that the tiny sixth grader on top of the table _had _to be it. So the eighth grader grounded up his own mash of food and aimed it at Noah. It missed and planted on Ashley's face.

"I will not get involved," she muttered to herself and she wiped the food off her face. "Is that…spinach?! Oh, it's on!" She took her fruit cup and threw it across the room, letting it land on anybody. A seventh grade boy followed Noah's example, stood up on the table, and shouted the two best words any student wanted to hear.

"FOOD FIGHT!"

The room filled up with flying foods as people aimed it at their friends, and at their enemies. Cody ducked under the table and tried to crawl away from the fight. He got hit in the back a few times by some pieces of pizza, but he managed to make it out of the cafeteria. A teacher passed by and looked at him. Cody took another look at the teacher…Principal Wagner.

"Mind telling me what's going on?" she said, hand on hip.

"Noah Springs started it," Cody answered. "I swear, I'm telling the truth!"

"I'll be the judge of that." She walked inside and grabbed the microphone that sat on top of the speakers in the cafeteria. "STOP!"

The room paused and the kids turned to see their principal. Knowing she was ready to give out referrals and suspensions, they sat down at their tables and pretended nothing had happened, except for some that had food down their shirts, they kept wiggling at the feeling of it.

"Noah Springs, Cody Harris, my office, right now," Mrs. Wagner said, a tone in her voice. Noah stepped off the table and glared at Cody as they followed the principal back to the office.

xXx

Author's Note: Everybody loves a good food fight! To be honest, I never been in one. Heck, I've never seen a fight, period! Only in movies! All of my friends have seen fights before, how come I haven't?


	5. Dropped Call

Why, yes, this chapter is short! Not much happening yet, huh? Well, somewhere around the...seventh or eighth chapter is where things heat a bit.

Chapter V

The Summers got a call from the school, since it was a good idea for them to know. Apparently their second-in-command was suspended from school for three days and grounded for ten. Brianna groaned at the thought of not having her best back-up in the field and Brittany just laughed hysterically. She never known Cody to get into so much trouble before. He was usually such a goodie, so hearing him get into trouble made her wish she was there to record it. So you can imagine all the teasing Cody had to go through, and it didn't stop until they had to leave him alone because Mom said so.

The next morning at Eaglewood, Brianna met up with Abraxas. Luli wasn't anywhere around, which was a surprise to her. She was so used to seeing Abraxas and Luli so close together that it was just too strange to see them apart.

"Where's the freak?" Brianna joked.

"Somewhere else. Now I got another freak on my tail…" Abraxas groaned, putting his jaw into his hands.

"Do you know her name at all, or is she a not-so-secret stalker?"

"Oh, I've known! I've known for the past week now. She wears so much perfume it kills my nose. It's sensitive to that. Why can't girls just lay off the perfume for a bit and be natural? Like you."

Brianna scratched her nose. She didn't get comments on how she smelled, you probably figured that out. Trying to ignore it now, she tried changing the subject a it.

"So, how 'bout that game tonight?" she asked.

"What, the football game?" Abraxas said, raising an eyebrow and wearing a slight smile. "I'm not going. I've got too much homework. What, you going?"

"Depends if I have to fight or not." It was always the crime-fighting kids that had to skip out on all the good stuff. But besides, Brianna was never much a fan for football. She might've watched a Jags game some time ago before Dad was kicked out, but that was probably two or three years ago.

"Well, that sucks," Luli grumped. "I was pretty sure Trevino might ask you."

"Can you pass him a message, please?" Brianna groaned. How many times had she mentioned she didn't like Trevino that well? "Tell him that if he ever tries to put any moves on me, his butt's gonna be frozen and the only way to unfreeze it is to get a chisel and scrape of his own ass."

"Dang, you're violent!" Abraxas noted.

"That's what I get for being a dragon."

*

How much time do kids spend in school? Eight hours? You sure? Because to Brianna it felt like the whole entire twenty-four. She was happy the last period of the day was so short, thanks to that A-day/ B-day schedule. Last period you had every day. And it was one of her favorite classes, too; English. The teacher's name was Mr. Kay and he was a pretty okay kind of guy. You could tell that he loved teaching and he would even throw a joke in the class whenever he had the chance. But it was just work for this time. Right now they were just going over some basic stuff. Something that had to do with syntax and diction to find out the personality of a speaker. Yeah, something like that.

"So, from this passage, can someone tell me what the speaker is like and what he might be? Chris?"

"Well, since he uses the words 'like' and 'dude' a lot, he kinda sounds like a teenage guy."

"Good. Anything else?…"

Since no one raised their hands, it seemed a bit weird. Brianna lived through a bunch of times where nobody had raised their hands, so the teacher automatically started calling out names. To avoid someone getting embarrassed, she raised her hand.

"Yes, Brianna?" Mr. Kay pointed. Brianna would've groaned, since he pronounced her name with a short A. Each time somebody did that, she would immediately say "It's Bri-_ah_-na." It always bugged her. Reason why was because, back in middle school, there was a girl with the short A Brianna that was a complete jerk to her all year long.

Brianna turned her head to give Mr. Kay some eye-contact. "He could be a surfer, or maybe a skater."

"Good! Really good! Anyone else? No?"

Brianna stared at all the faces that looked back. Some of them were snarled into a look that scared the lights out of her. She didn't have to be Bestial or anything, to grab Panthora's psychosis, to know what they were thinking. Most of them thought she was just being a show-off, just because she was a Maximal. And just because she was a Maximal, people labeled her as teacher's pet. Publicity sucks.

Right in her thought process, a phone rang. It was kind of muffled, since it might've been stuffed into somebody's purse or pocket, but Mr. Kay could hear it clearly.

"Alright, who's phone is that?" he said, taking the marker off the board and looking around the room. He kept moving his head to find a guilty face in there somewhere, but he could see one. Instead, he followed the sound and it eventually ended up next to Brianna.

The girl looked back up at him. She could've sworn those eyes meat detention.

"Ms. Summers?" he said, an eyebrow raising. Brianna suddenly realized that it was _her _phone going off. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the cell phone. She read the caller I.D. and told him it was important.

"Brittany, why are you calling me?"

"_The Predacons are all the way in Maine! What do we do?_"

Brianna stared at the curious faces. Some of them were smiling, hoping for her to get in trouble.

"Alright, is Cody there?"

"_Yeah, hold on. CODY!……I'm here, Brianna."_

"Alright, pup-dog, here's what you do. You're going to need to pull Andre out of class and pick up Logan back at your house. Take Tigress with you, because I don't know if you'll need firepower or not."

"_Thanks, cousin!_"

"You owe me minutes…and an ice cream."

"_Why?_"

"For having my phone taken away. Mom's gonna ticked." Before Cody could answer, she closed the phone and handed it to Mr. Kay. "I know the drill," she groaned. But the teacher said it anyway.

"Have your Mom come and get it after school."

"I ride the bus."

A couple of laughs were given out somewhere in that silent crowd. Brianna found it kinda funny, too. A dragon that rides the bus? Wouldn't it be easier to fly back home? Well, it would be, if only you had permission from the mayor to do so. And she was pretty sure the mayor of Jacksonville had better things to do than waster time with a techno-organic teenager.

"Next time, I'm teaching Nightfang how to give out his own orders," she said to the teacher.

"Be sure you do."

xXx

Author's Note: Ever read Catcher in the Rye? God, that books makes me so depressed! I think it's coming out into my writing, it's terrible! *whines* Oh, never write your stories on an empty stomach, okay? 'Cause now I want that ice cream. YO! Where's my chocolate?!


	6. London

Chapter VI

A full week, was it? Even so, none of the Predacons had picked up another signal. What they meant by picking up the pieces was Megatron. Omega may have killed him, but she didn't destroy him. There were only bits and pieces of the Decepticon left and they were spread out all over the world. All they were doing was putting the puzzle into the right places. And they were nearly finished.

"I'm hungry!" Wingspan whined. "I want some turkey!"

"Could ya quit it?!" Slyther yelled. "God, you're such a child!"

"I'm eleven, I can be whiny!"

"Both of you, STOP!" Ironwing shouted. Before the bat and snake could get into a fist fight, they both flinched at Ironwing's voice echoing through the cave. "We don't need any more fighting in this cave! You're being an embarrassment. Even when no one is watching!"

"We need extra help, sir," Foxtrot answered. "Those Maximals will beat us one day if we don't get it."

Ironwing thought about this for a while. He hated to admit it, but his second officer was right. The Maximals had more experience than them. The Predacons came online only last month.

What had happened was almost the exact thing that caused the birth of the Maximals, only they did it deliberately. They hated the Maximals. They don't know why, they just did. All seven of them were camping out at Keystone Park, and all seven had heard a dark voice inside their heads, telling them where to go. It got to the point where none of them could control it and ended up in the same spot as the All Spark (before the Chosen Maximals decided to hide it).

"What is this?!" Trevino had shouted as he looked at the others standing around the orb.

"Okay, whoever's pulling this joke, cut it out!" Gabryjela roared. "This ain't funny!"

_My children, this is only the beginning. _The voice was imprinted into each and every one of their heads. It would never leave them, for he was their commander. _I have seen your hatred of the Maximals. It's perfect for my army._

"Listen, man," Abraxas spoke up, "we don't want any part of anything!"

_Patience, young boy. I can give you power! You don't have to live in silence, in fear, trapped on this Earth for the rest of your miserable lives. Touch the All Spark and you will get your wish…_

They did as they were told. Trevino was the first to touch the All Spark. Abraxas sucked in his gut and took a hand forward. Once everyone's hand was on the Spark, the orb glowed brightly and took them into darkness.

So this is what they became; a group of Predacons out to serve the Decepticons and revive Megatron. Hoping to destroy the Maximals in the process.

* * *

It took a while to contact the Decepticons so far away from Earth. Slyther was ready to go destroy another piece of Jacksonville when someone had finally answered her com-link. He had a sort of accent to his voice and sounded promising enough when he talked to her. The stranger promised to come as soon as he possibly could, and closed the link.

* * *

"Dude, birds did not come from dinosaurs!" said Darren. Some boy in Brianna's science class was trying to correct her on their poster they had to draw and present to the class. Their's was on evolution.

"Hey, I've been studying dinosaurs since I could read!" she snapped back. "Do you have any clue what a Gallimimus is?"

"A what?"

Brianna smirked. She _knew _about dinosaurs. Like she said, she'd been reading about them since she could remember. At some point in her life she came across a picture of the steps dinosaurs took to become birds.

"Wait a second!" the boy said. "I think I remember something about it in a video game!"

"A video game?" she groaned. Was she the only one that read books around this place? This boy learned lessons from electronics and some shows that somehow made you stupid. Darren once talked about a scene that was from _Family Guy_ and she realized how stupid that show really was to her. Well, that was her opinion. This world's so screwed…

Over and over he tried to correct her, and once she got to the picture of a dinosaur-bird, he laughed.

"That looks like something that would attack Tokyo!" he roared.

"You watch way too many movies, and that's coming from me!" Brianna snapped, pointing at herself. "This is an archaeopteryx."

"A _what_?"

"Didn't have _that _on Dino Thunder, did ya?" she teased.

Ten minutes until the class was over and most the class had gotten through their presentations. The one thing, _one thing_, that bugged the dragon girl was the way they presented. It was only a small detail that should've been in their heads since seventh grade: Their heads turned to the paper rather than giving eye contact. Coming from an art school, she knew just how to do that.

Her and Darren didn't have time to show off their project, so they just gave it to the teacher. Mr. Farrell, the teacher, stopped her for a second.

"How'd you do this?" he asked.

"Uh…Well, I thought that birds came from dinosaurs…" she said shyly. Eight years of reading about this stuff. Don't you think you'd know something?

"Everyone else that did this, every one of them, came up with monkeys into men. Seems that you're the only one that can understand evolution." Mr. Farrell gave her a pat on the back and told her she could go. Darren was standing right at the door and looked at her with his mouth open.

"What now, boy?" she said in a playful attitude tone. "What now?"

_Brianna Summers to the Deans' office. Brianna Summers to the Deans' office._

"Some-one's in trou-ble!" Darren sang.

There were two people named Dean at the school. Both of them were hallway scanners; where they would take that I.D. you wore, scan it, give you a tardy, then take you back to class. Other times they were the ones that kept you in detention.

"Shut it up, Darren," she growled. To scare him off, her eyes turned bright blue and her teeth were bared sharply, then he ran away in the other direction. "Nice talking to ya."

She walked down the empty hallways and looked over at some of the security guards that stood at the ends. It scared the crap out of her that they had to hire these people. Just the other day she had witnessed a chick fight that nearly happened. She didn't know what went on, but two girls had been shouting at each other, and their friends tried to hold them back. One of the guards and _two police officers _came to the cafeteria to take them to the office. Brianna didn't know what would happen to them and hoped that they were okay.

At the Deans' office she saw a lady at a desk, typing in something on the computer. Probably some referrals that were going to be printed up and sent to parents. This school was filled with issues.

"Uh, I believe someone called for me?" Brianna spoke up. The lady didn't look at her, but pointed over to a door on the other side of the room. The label said "Marge Dean".

"Thanks," Brianna said with a smile. She didn't know how the lady felt since she didn't react to it. The girl walked over to the door and opened it with a creaking sound.

"Um, Brianna Summers here," she called out, poking her head through. No one was in the room. Ms. Marge must have been out in the hallways still. You would not be_lieve _how many juniors and seniors skipped class. Why was it always the upper class that started all this?

She walked into the room and looked at the organized desk and computer screen that showed some grade reports. It was showing the reports for the freshmen and it was already scrolled down to her name. Just to know, she took a peek at her Geography grade, without touching the mouse. It was a C.

"I hate Mr. Gabriel…" Her Geography teacher.

"Most people hate their teachers," said a woman's voice. Brianna stepped back from the computer and looked at the lady. She was in a black suit that you would expect to see the White House secretary to be in.

"You called for me, miss?" Brianna was taught to refer to women as "Miss" rather than "Ma'am." Somehow "ma'am" made them feel old.

"You've got a call," she answered, pointing at the phone laying away from its regular position. Brianna picked it up and said hello. At first the voice didn't respond, but then she heard screams of terror and shouts of something robotic. A few explosions were added into the mix.

"_London. We'll meet you there, Maximal_," said a voice. It sounded gentlemanly, but knowing that it must have been a Decepticon, that changed perspective. Brianna hung up the phone and turned to Marge.

"Can you tell Mrs. Monroe that I can't come to Geometry?" she asked.

"Is there an emergency?"

"London, England. Another attack."

Marge bent down over her desk and wrote something on a sticky note. She tore it out and gave it to Brianna. "Give this to the lady and she'll call your teacher. Good luck."

Brianna took the note and stood next to the lady at the computer. She was typing away, not paying attention. Getting mad at her, Brianna just posted the note in front of her screen and ran off.

She took her cell phone from her pocket and called up her cousins.

"William, Andre, I'll meet you at the beach. We're heading over to London."

"_Whoa, really?!_" said William's voice. "_Are we on vacation already? Oh, hold on. Ms. Barbra, this is an emergency, please?…Thank you, ma'am. Okay, what were you saying?_"

"Decepticon attack in London. Grab Andre and come on! Make sure the principal knows first before you end up in detention."

William didn't say good bye, but hung up. Brianna raced to her locker to stuff in her books and binders. A junior came up and asked her why she was rushing. She ignored him and ran out to the open courtyard near the cafeteria. The junior boy watched as she changed her form and became the Maximal dragon.

"You can't do that! You've got classes!" he shouted.

"Tell that to the Deans!" she yelled back. Her wings rolled in circles before she lifted off and flew towards the beach to meet up with the Harris'.

* * *

The Predacons destroyed whatever they could in sight. They saved Big Ben for when the Maximals came. That would probably irritate them a bit. Yin-Yang was destroying some museums, Wingspan attacked the theaters, and the rest destroyed what they wanted. Didn't care what it was, they just wanted it to be plowed to the ground.

"When are those stupid Maximals coming?" Phoenix complained. "I'm running out of crap to tear up!"

"Sixth graders," Slyther groaned as she transformed into a cobra and hissed at the bystanders. They tried to run away from the chaos, but those Predacons prowled the entire area. Slyther bared her fangs and came forward to pick up a little girl.

"Let me go!" she cried.

"As you wish, human," the snake purred. With a jerking twist of her head, the child was sent flying over to the ocean nearby. The woman of the child cried out for her baby to come back, and Slyther only laughed.

"Hey! Fork tongue!" someone shouted. The green snake groaned out loud and turned around to see Darkjaw with the child in his hands. "It's rude to throw people."

"Maximal filth!" the snake roared. Her head contacted the ground and she went into a race towards the shark. She was quick, like all snakes, and Darkjaw was having a hard time trying to attack her and hold the girl safely at the same time.

"God, I hate snakes!" he shouted. At that moment, Slyther wrapped her body around the young Maximal and constricted scales to rough skin. Darkjaw started to choke and let the girl fall down to the ground. Her father had caught her and ran like he was on the cross country team in the Olympics.

"You will die here, Maximal!" Slyther hissed. "You and all your kind will perish!"

"Quit yappin' and start fightin'!" Goldwing shouted from above. With his clawed feet, he took hold of the snake and lifted her up, making her release his brother. "Birds eat snakes, ya nut! But you're lucky that I had a big breakfast." From there, fifty feet above ground, he dropped her like a ball and she landed hard on the face.

"Ow…ooh…" she moaned.

Foxtrot took her place and began jumping from building to building to reach for the eagle. The red second in command lunged at him and caused him to fall down to the concrete with the weight. Once he was ten feet away from the gruond, Foxtrot jumped to safety and let the yellow Maximal hit the hard, tiled street.

"Die, human!" he cheered.

"Hey, you're human, too!" Goldwing corrected as he stood up. "Omega told me y'all are just like us. So, why? You guys hate the world?"

"We hate _you_!" Crack-Up said, tackling him. "Megatron is the greatest leader! He'll be back, just wait 'n' see!"

"Megatron's dead, freak!" Goldwing shouted, shoving the hyena off of him. "I saw him die!"

"Didn't you learn anything in science?" she smirked, ready to pounce again.

A confused look found its way to Goldwing's face. "Excuse me?"

"Law of matter," Phoenix recited, perching herself on a spire on the nearest building. "Matter cannot be created nor destroyed."

"Wait, so you mean…Oh, snap…"

"That's right, Maximal," Ironwing grunted. "Lord Megatron will rise again!"

"There's problem with your theory," Icefire said, landing just behind the red dragon. "The All Spark's hidden. No one but the Chosens know where it is, and they'd die rather than tell you its location!"

"That can be arranged," Ironwing smirked.

"You're a sick guy, you know that?"

"Now!"

From behind Icefire came six pairs of claws. She had no time to react as three grasped around her neck and the other three kept her close by the owner of those pincers.

"Hello, little Maximal," he purred. The guy on the phone. How cliché…

"Care to tell me…your name?" she choked.

"If you must know, my name is Shockwave. One of Megatron's greatest followers."

"Tell you and your friends that he's dead." He choked her harder. "Imk! Get over it!"

"He's not truly dead, you know," the Predacon leader smirked.

"Whatever…Ack! Guys! Get this clown off me!" Darkjaw started off by running towards the ocean, and Goldwing to the sky. "Guys, come on!"

Both Maximals didn't say anything. They left Icefire in the hold of Shockwave.

"Looks like your teammates have failed you," the mech chuckled. "So sad."

"You don't care," Icefire semi-smirked. _Great job, guys…Now I'll be dead…_

All of a sudden, Shockwave has hosed down by water, making him let go of the white dragon. She took several steps away from him and started attacking Ironwing. Shockwave looked through the water to see the shark Maximal spraying him with salt water.

"You think this can stop me?!" he laughed. "You Maximals really _are _unintelligent!"

"Wrong again, one-eye," Goldwing said from above as soon as his brother was done. "Water plus electricity?"

"Equals BOOM!" Darkjaw cheered. Shockwave looked up to the eagle as electric sparks began to friction in Goldwing's hands. The surge became larger and more visible until he was ready o fire.

"Oh…slag…"

Goldwing aimed his power surge at the intel 'bot. Shockwave lived up to his name and received, well, a shockwave of lightning. The static pulsed though his entire body, nearly making him shut down. But the blast wasn't so strong that it would cause him to go offline. He laid there, motionless on the ground. People who were still watching the battle (recording to show to family and friends) started to cheer and made the Predacons fairly angry.

The eagle landed on top of Shockwave to hold him down. Icefire walked up and bent down towards his face just to rub it all in.

"Is that all you've got…organic Autobots?" the mech groaned.

"Apparently not all, cyclops," she smiled. "Darkjaw, twenty thousand."

"Yes, sir," the shark grinned. He took Shockwave by the legs and started dragging him to the ocean.

"What are you going to do with me?!" the mech screamed. "Let me go at once!"

"F.Y.I., I don't take orders from you. My order was to do twenty thousand. Which means to drag you to the deepest part of this ocean. Like the book, _Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea_. So, I am Captain Nemo and you will come with me to be dropped into the ocean. Have a fun trip."

With that, the shark transformed and kept one of Shockwave's antennas in his multitude of teeth and dove into the water. Thirty minutes later he found the perfect spot to dump the Decepticon. Shockwave begged for mercy and asked Megatron for forgiveness. This made Darkjaw laugh and he kept that little image in his mind to tell his family. Once he came back to the surface, only his brother and cousin were there, looking around at all the damage the Predacons had caused.

"We're gonna get sued one day, you know that?" Goldwing said to Icefire.

"So this is what the Fantastic Four live with," she joked. "Then again, one's a scientific freak and he's rich. He can pay for all that crap he does."

"Yo, where'd the freaks go?" Darkjaw asked, expecting Crack-Up to start laughing and create some kind of weird image into his head.

"They just left right after you did," the eagle said. "Guess we scared them off."

"Let's just hope that they won't do it again," the dragon groaned.

"Uh…I wouldn't count on that, Ice. Phoenix said something that Aries needs to hear. But she won't be happy with it."

xXx

Author's Note: Remember that Catcher in the Rye book I told you about? The one that was depressing me and went out into writing but had to do for English? Finally done! So this chapter's actually better! And here's a little tip for you all. In the middle of a roleplay, I came up with an idea for a **third story **to this. If ya keep me on Author Alert, you'll know when that threequel will come. ;)

If none of you send in reviews, I feel like no one likes my story...


	7. Poisoned Love

I'm starting to think that nobody likes this story, since no one has reviewed to it...But trust me on this, the third story will kick $$. You just need to keep up with this one to get to the third (and I believe I just came up with a fourth.)

* * *

Chapter VII

Because Andre was the one that was told the bad news, he was the one that had given it to the other Maximals. Just from that basic law from science they all knew what the Predacons were doing secretly. It made their world-wide appearance obvious now.

"They're reconstructing Megatron!" William cried out. "How can they even do that?!"

"Like a puzzle," Aries said. "Even though the pieces are small, you can still fit them together."

Everyone was too shocked to think further about it. They didn't know if they would be able to stop the Predacons from getting to the All Spark right after they finished building the dead body of their true leader. Maybe they had the All Spark already.

Brianna jut stood away from the panicking group to think about the Predacons. Not what they were doing, but just about them. She didn't want to jump to conclusions, but Yin-Yang and Foxtrot sounded all too much like Luli and Abraxas. Where they Predacons? And what about their leader? If the Predacons were humans too, then who was the Russian-accented dragon?

It got her to thinking that it was maybe Trevino. She talked to Luli once about where Trevino was from and she gave her a good bit about his history.

"Trev's mom came from Russia and just married into America," she said. "He told me something that his grandparents were furious when they had two daughters instead of a boy _and _a girl. It was some kinda family thing. You'll have to ask him about it."

But the blue dragon didn't even dare go close to that boy. He might have been good-looking to everyone, but she could never see looks as well as others. (That's what her friend called a late bloomer.) So she tried seeing his attitude. As far as she could tell, he was a dude that always smiled at girls but never wanted to pick any for himself.

"Guys, I'm gonna go," she said, walking away from her spot. "I need to do some homework."

* * *

The next day, Brianna tried hard to think about Luli and Abraxas as the white and the red Predacons. But it was kinda hard to get the idea of your friends being enemies out of your head. Maybe she would just talk to them and figure it out for herself. So she walked over to the court yard and sat at one of the benches to wait on them. For what seemed like a while they didn't show up, but a cute and fluffy voice had said her name.

"Brianna!" Luli called, running up to her with Abraxas walking behind. "What happened yesterday? I didn't catch you near the buses."

"Uh, I wanted to…talk you guys about something," she said in what was probably her most nervous tone. "Yesterday I figured that the Predacons were like us Maximals, just not serving the same purpose."

"Do you know who they are?" Abraxas said with an intense look noticeable on his face.

"I had a theory," Brianna continued. "I noticed the panda and the fox." Luli's eyes got bigger. "I'm thinking that they're you two. And I don't want to be friends with worst enemies."

Abraxas seemed to smirk and got closer to her. He leaned down so his mouth was near her ear and whispered in a dark, African accent.

"Then killing you will be easy."

The girl's spine must have locked into place to send up that unwanted cold up and down her back. Her eyes grew larger and glowed brightly to a fight-or-flight reaction in herself. The human said to run and be safe, but the Cybertronian molecules that constructed her other half said to fight him. Her mind took over to control both and said to just stay where she was. Don't run because that would be way too cowardly; don't fight because that would be an automatic suspension from school.

Abraxas noticed the change of mood in her and pulled away. "Come on, Yin," he said to Luli. "Let's leave the Maximal be."

Luli chirped playfully, like anything wasn't a big deal, and followed Abraxas to another area of the school to wait for it to start. Brianna sat there at the bench and put her head in her hands. Now that she knew, the Predacons would probably do anything to stop her from ruining their plans. And seems like Abraxas would be willing to kill her. _I thought that man said he was feminist_, she thought.

She felt someone come up behind her and stop about a foot away from her. She decided to try and ignore them, to see if they would go away. Half a minute later, they were still there. Brianna gave up and turned around to see who she definitely didn't want to at this moment.

"Hello," said Trevino. He flashed a pure white smile at her to earn some trust, and it worked a little. Brianna studied his face; red hair with some black lowlights looked pretty freaky, deep green eyes seemed sort of innocent, and somehow the Russian accent became more attractive, but she would still keep on her toes about him.

"Hey, Trevino," she mumbled, loud enough for him to hear. He chuckled and sat down next to her, not waiting for any form of invitation.

"You look like you're hurting," he said. "Family member died?"

"No…I just figured out who two of the Predacons were."

"Really? Who?" _If Trevino is Ironwing, then he does a god job about laying low on it._

"Abraxas is the fox, Luli's the panda," she sighed.

"Only those two?" he said, his voice getting a little too intense. Brianna could tell that he had to be at least one of the Predacons. And the only one that suited was Ironwing.

"So far," she growled, and turned her head towards him, "but I'm getting suspicions about you."

Before she could even do anything to walk away, Trevino grabbed her jaw and came forward to kiss her. The adrenaline kicked in and the girl couldn't move because she had never had been kissed and her body said to stay and let him.

His lips pressed against hers in what was unfamiliar to her, but she seemed to catch on and fix the way she was positioned. Trevino kept a hand on the back of her head to secure her to him; he wasn't going to let her go unless he wanted.

The taste was sweet for a bit, but slowly it began to change. Brianna's face turned from pleasant to sour as the feeling became sour along with the flavor. But Trevino acted as if nothing was happened and continued to kiss her. He only pulled away to breathe.

"Trevi--" She didn't have enough time to finish when he pulled in for another lick. The sensation was gone to the girl, but he was determined to get what he wanted. Brianna found her inner Maximal growing inside with rage. She had enough to convert that into strength and pushed him away, her falling backwards to the ground. She felt something dangle from her mouth and wiped it to look. On her hand was a thick and black liquid. She turned to look at Trevino, his mouth revealing the same thing.

"What…" She was too shocked to think. The Russian-American's mouth curled into a smirk and he wiped the black gunk from his lips. Brianna looked at the portion on her hand and sniffed it. She knew immediately what it was.

"You've poisoned me!" she screeched. Heads had turned to look at her and none bothered to do anything. That's the way humans have come to be. No one wants to get involved, so they stay at the side lines. (When someone calls for help, you help; don't sit there.)

"More or less," Trevino hissed. The girl tried to move her body, but it automatically became numb and she couldn't do anything. Trevino walked over to her and put his arms underneath her, then walked out to the grass. "Sleep well, princess."

Her vision started to blur as she saw the boy turn red, then black spikes grew from his head. His body started growing into the proper size of the Predacon leader, and he took off to the air with her.


	8. The Talisman of Master Merlin

Chapter VIII

Half of her consciousness was back when her body felt the poison wearing off a little. All she could think of now was which of her friends were Predacons and if any were the younger Maximals' friends were as well. Trying to think like a Predacon, she figured out that they tried gaining trust from them so they wouldn't suspect them as their enemy. Too bad their personalities wasn't something they could change.

"That was a stupid stunt, Trevino," she heard someone say. Icefire could easily identify it as the mango haired girl, Gabryjela.

"It was all I could do. I panicked!" the Russian teenager said. "What else was I supposed to do? I couldn't have her there screaming her head off that we were Predacons. The police would be on our ass in no time."

"True. And now that Trevino's poisoned her she won't have enough power to fight us. She'll have no choice but to cooperate."

"And no choice but to stand and watch her world die as her old enemy takes over."

Icefire shivered where she was and tried to take a peak over at the Predacons standing together. She could see the eagerness in Yin-Yang's eyes and the cute little smirk and Crack-Up. Phoenix looked like she just wanted to kill something and Foxtrot only stood there with his arms crossed. Ironwing was the largest and the blue dragon could see the red eyes outshine the black face that felt as if it sent a knife through her heart.

The red dragon took notice of someone looking at him and gave a wicked smile towards his Maximal prey. Icefire one again shivered and stared at his eyes. He walked over to her and bent down so they were face to face.

"Good morning, my dear," he purred. "Have a pleasant sleep?"

"Could be worse…" she whispered.

Ironwing chuckled and leaned in closer, until he was in kissing reach. Icefire tried backing her head away, but was only able to get a few inches out.

"Sorry for the inconvenience," he said.

"No you're not. You liked it."

"Did _you_?" Another white smile against that black face. "You seemed calm."

"Until that black gunk came through your nasty mouth and ruined it."

He leaned in towards her audio and whispered "Then next time will be better…"

Icefire stood still, waiting for a chill to come up her spine. But the ice inside her ceased its passage and she never felt it. It was there either way.

"How did this happen?" she asked. "How did you become techno-organics?"

"We found it," Yin-Yang said, more happy than threatening. "Same way you Maximals did! Except this time he called us."

"Who called you?"

"Megatron," Foxtrot explained. "He knew our hatred for our own race _and _you."

"But do you know what I found interesting?" Ironwing chuckled. "How come we didn't become full machinery? Think about it. The All Spark is strong enough to overcome an organic cell, then why didn't it finish the job?" His eyes became brighter as Icefire felt an urge to run. "I examined the Spark and saw that there was a piece missing. It wasn't complete to make us full Cybertronian. Somewhere, out there in the world, there is another small fragment of the All Spark…and we're going to find it."

"Over my dead body!" the blue dragon screeched. Ironwing wrapped a hand over her throat and tightened his grip, making her gag.

"That can be arranged…" he growled. "But I want you to see your failure as the world dies." Seeing the confused expression on her face, he continued. "We found the pieces of Megatron. His body is in the cave as we speak. Once we find the remaining shard, he will come back to life and this planet will bid the universe _adieu_." He let go of her throat and she gasped to get some air. "Wingspan will take you back. Have a life while you still can." He turned his back on her. "Noah!"

The brown bat nodded and stepped up to Icefire. The grin on his face was like a horror movie and he opened his mouth. The last thing that Icefire heard was a piercing screech as her world faded back to darkness.

* * *

"Brianna! Brianna! C'mon, girl, wake up! You can't be dead; you're still young!"

"Everyone says that! Just pour a bucket of water on her."

"Then she'll get pissed and we'll have to run away in bloody terror."

"Since when, Jericho, did you start saying bloody?"

"Since I got into _Pirates of the Caribbean_."

Icefire opened her eyes once again to find out that she was surrounded by the other Maximals peering down at her and waiting for her to respond to anything they said. Further above were tree tops and a twilight sky.

"Where am I?" she moaned.

"Ragged Island," Alpha answered. "Sorta southeast of Jacksonville."

"Great fish here, I tell ya," Darkjaw inquired. "I brought you some." He pointed to a small pile of large bass. "Some fisherman tried taking them away from me."

"At least we're not on _Gopher _Island. Too many people would swarm over here," the dragon snickered. "Gimme a fish."

Darkjaw obeyed and threw a fish towards her. She sunk her teeth into it and never realized that fish could ever taste so good.

"So, what did those Predacons want?" Tigress asked.

"Nothing from me, that's for sure."

"Then what?"

"They told me what was going to happen…We didn't become full robotic because there's a piece of the All Spark missing. And, like Goldwing predicted, they're bringing an old enemy of ours back to life."

"Why would he even tell you that?" Omega yelled. "That's so stupid!"

"Not really. Ironwing doesn't care, because he knows he'll win. I'm too weak to even get up."

There was a slight silence until Nightfang spoke up.

"I think I know who the Predacons are now," he said.

"I think we've got it all figured out now, Cody," Icefire interrupted. "Trevino's Ironwing, Gabryjela's Slyther, Foxtrot is Abraxas, and Luli is Yin-Yang. What do you got?"

"Fawn is Crack-Up, Noah is Wingspan--"

"And Ashley is Phoenix," Panthora finished. "Do you think we should let Biba fight? More than half of the Predacons are older than us, even older than you, Icefire." At that moment, the brown money crossed her arms and pouted.

"I know. But don't insult our own power. We saved Earth once before, by God we can do it again. We just need to think and--" She stopped short as she heard something faint in her head. It was a chant.

"Brianna?" Tigress said. "You okay?"

The frost dragon whispered "The Talisman of Master Merlin."

* * *

At least twelve thousand miles away, in Germany, a boy about the same age of the Maximals had his own encounter with the All Spark. But this was a small part of it…

Archibald Keese was camping as well, with his friend Kyler Malone in Black Forest. Like any other, it was just a simple play around their camping site until Archibald tripped and found a light-colored crystal in front of him.

"Archie!" Kyler called after him. "Sorry about that. It vasn't my best throw anyvay."

"I-It's fine…" Archie said as he picked up the mineral. It was larger than his own hand and had a jade dragon wrapped around the edge of it. "Do jou know vat this is?"

"No. It looks like a piece uva necklace, though."

"We've studied dragons together, Kyler! Zis is the Talisman!"

"Ve read about dragons because ve thought it vould pass time! Zat's just a trick set by some poor fool. Or perhaps a crazy person. It can't be Master Merlin's."

"It looks exactly like it!" Archie looked at it again and held it up to the afternoon sunlight. "Jou can't tell me it's not it."

"I can and I vill; zat's not Merlin's Talisman!" Kyler objected.

"Den ve shall see…Vere's the nearest mountain?"

"Yer going to summon a dragon?"

"It's vorth a shot."

Kyler was silent for a moment, then crossed his arms. "A mile south. I'm going too!"

The boys had to tell their father's first where they were headed and had full permission to go. Archie ran faster than his friend, determined to see a dragon. Kyler shouted after him to wait, but the red-haired boy decided to ignore him and kept going. The only time he waited was when he made it to the top of a small mountain.

"Do you 'ave vater?" Kyler gasped. Archie shook his head and held the Talisman up high to begin his summon.

"_Nine times nine lives hath lived ze cat_

_And ninety nights are nine by ten,_

_Nine ounces from nine pounds of fat,_

_Nine times hath pecked ze Dorking hen,_

_So nine times nine I call to zee,_

_Ninth of those nine thou come to me!_"

Archibald repeated it nine more times to finish it and waited for his dragon to come.

xXx

Author's Note: Told ya I was going to put in mythology. You'll see even more of that when I make the fourth book. (SPOIL SPOIL!)


	9. Beginning of Death

Ni ryari izuba, Rizagaruka, Hejuru yacu. (When will the sun reurn above us?)  
Ni nd' uzaricyeza ricyeza. (Who will reveal it to us once again?)

Million Voices by Wyclef Jean--Hotel Rwanda

.

Chapter IX

Ironwing stood at the front of the cave base, arms crossed, and smiling to himself. He knew that chanted spell far too well. It was called upon dragons to come and claim Merlin's Talisman to protect it. But the Talisman did not exist. The All Spark fragment must have chipped off when it was sent down to Earth and taken the title of the Talisman. Humans were such petty creatures.

"Sir, what's wrong?" Wingspan asked, tilting his head slightly.

"I'll be back in a few hours. Tell everyone." He transformed.

"Where ya going?"

"Germany." The red dragon took off to the sky to make his trip across the Atlantic Ocean and over a couple of other countries to retrieve his prize.

* * *

Icefire tried standing, with the help of her teammates. She told them she needed to leave them behind and go somewhere, but they tried keeping her on the ground.

"You've been poisoned, who knows what might happen to you!" Alpha said.

"And your color's just now coming back, really slowly," Goldwing inquired. "You can't even walk right yet!"

Without moving her lips much, Icefire said "Who said I was walking?" and transformed. Panthora tried holding her back with her psychosis but the blue frost dragon was faster than her and took to the sky, just miles away from Ironwing.

* * *

Archie sighed and put the crystal to his chest. "I didn't vork…" he sighed. Kyler came up behind him and slapped a hand to his shoulder.

"Of course ih didn't!" he said, feeling like the smart one for once. "Vat in the devil's name did jou tink dat dragons vere veal?"

"Dis thing…" He held up the Talisman.

"_Dis _is vat got us here in ze first place!" He grabbed the crystal from his friend's hands. Archie reached for it, but Kyler held him back with a hand and kept the crystal in two arms' reach. "Admit zat dragons aren't veal und I'll give it bach!"

"Zey aren't veal! Zey aren't veal! Zey aren't--!"

_Grrooooooaaahrr!!!_

Both boys looked out to where the roar came from and saw, just a few miles away in the air, a red shape. Next to it was a white one with the same bodily features and was attacking the red one.

"Zey _are _real…" Kyler gasped. "RUN!" He took off down the small mountain to the clearing in the forest, Archibald following him. The figures they saw landed in the same clearing as the boys ran to the edge to the trees for safety. They stared as the two creatures battled on the field. Archie's eyes widened as he saw the two dragons fighting.

"I told jou!" he said. Kyler just stared at the mythical beasts, mouth hanging slightly open.

"That All Spark is rightfully mine!" shouted Ironwing.

"The Spark belongs to no one!" Icefire snapped back. The red dragon lashed forward and put her neck between his teeth, holding her in place with his claws. Icefire roared out in pain and lowered to the ground. She snapped her tail up to him to at least try and poke him hard in the leg to get him off. The Russian dragon only found it irritating and let go. Icefire stood back up, bared her teeth, and talked without moving her mouth.

"I know what will happen to this world, Trevino, and it's not going to look good…You're going to destroy this world along with Megatron! You must stop this madness!"

"What makes you think I'm going to listen to someone younger than me?"

"How about someone who's got two psychics on her side?"

Ironwing roared in fury and dashed at her again, almost slicing off the metal scales.

Archie gasped "The legend…"

Kyler sighed and looked at his friend. "Vhat are jou saying now?"

"Ze legend of ze red Welsh and ze vhite Saxon dragons!" Archie exclaimed. "Two dragons vere battling over a city vall and had destroyed it to bits. Merlin caged them, but once ze vall was rebuilt, they escaped!"

"Who von?"

Archibald looked out to the clearing. Ironwing was pinned down by Icefire and blew an inferno of heat at her face, making her turn away and crawl off him. He jumped back up and dashed at her, but she dodged it.

"Ze red Welsh did…"

Ironwing snapped at Icefire's wings as she slashed him across the face with her claws and snarled. He tried going at her legs, but her legs were strong and quick, so she dodged the attack. Ironwing tried again and had a surefire hit on her thigh. She fell over and admitted defeat. She couldn't move any longer; she wish she'd brought her team.

Ironwing strolled over to the two cowering boys that stood at the edge of the clearing. He stood proud before them and bowed his head to show he would not harm them. Icefire, and the rest of the world would if they knew, could tell it was a lie.

"What is your name, boy?" he asked.

"A-Archibald. Archibald Keese, my lord."

Archibald held the Talisman up to the red dragon as it shined brightly against the sun. Ironwing quickly snatched it in his jaws and flew back to America. Icefire stood up weakly and looked at Archie. He stared back, reading her eyes.

"What have you done?" she whispered. "_Wir werden sterben…_We're going to die!" With that she took off to the sky to follow her enemy. Archie fell to the ground and watched. Kyler stood over him.

"Vat was zat about?" he said.

"I started ze Apocalypse."

xXx

Author's Note: It gets worse.


	10. Wait

Chapter X

Ironwing placed the final piece of the All Spark into place with the rest of the Predacons watching, waiting, anxious of what was going to happen. The Spark glowed brightly, almost blinding them. The red Russian dragon picked up the All Spark and placed it in front of the dead body of Megatron that they had pieced together.

"Mighty lord Megatron, we have served our purpose. Let every part of you rise into power that you deserve and let us be your disciples. Megatron, leader of the great Decepticons, arise."

"_You shall have what you deserve, Ironwing…Earth will tremble before us all…_"

The white body melded into place as the All Spark worked its wonders towards the dark leader. His true color came back into the legs, then torso, all the way up to the tip of the helm. He snapped his optics open, rose up, and unsheathed his sword to the Predacons. One by one they bowed to him in respect, for this was their superior.

Lord Megatron had come back from the grave.

"Send a frequency to all Decepticons," he growled. "Time had come to take control of Earth."

"Yes, my lord…"

* * *

"What happened?!" Aries screamed as Icefire landed and shifted back to her organic form. "You look like you were in a blender!"

"Well whoever put me in the blender hit liquefy; I fell like the bottom of a taxi cab…" Brianna fell over, face-first, into the grass. Her sister ran up and turned her back over. "I should've brought you guys with me. I wasn't strong enough to face him. Me of all people should know I need a team."

"Exactly!" Brittany said. "Quit acting like a Mary Sue for God's sake! What happened? Did you get it or not?"

"I couldn't…The damn boy that had it believed in an old Merlin legend…"

"Oh, so now science is myth?" Aries snapped.

"Myth was early literature and science…So in a sense, yes. The battle between the white Saxon and the red Welsh is what he was referring to. The Welsh beat the Saxon in the story so--"

"He believed Ironwing had the rights to the All Spark," Aries growled, stating a fact more than question. "When I see that boy I will kill him."

Brianna chuckled. "Yellow hair, green eyes, goes by Archibald Keese."

"Thanks, I'll keep him in mind," Aries said, smile on face. "So what do we do?"

"We live our lives while we can. The Decepticons will be here soon, make no mistake about it. Just wake up in the morning, go to school, come back and do homework. We'll spend our day like any other kid."

"You sure that's what we should do?"

"We must. We'll think of something later."

So that's exactly what they did. For about two more months the Maximals waited for the Decepticon attack. If they were gathering now they were pretty shy about it. It was almost February and they hadn't moved a single muscle or even an inch. Brianna was getting tense and dared not to ask the Chosens what would happen for she was afraid of what they would tell her. All they had to do was wait.

So then came May of 2010...

"Right _now _right now?" Noah asked. The youngest Predacons were grouped outside of their school and chatting over the attack.

"That's what Trevino told me," Fawn shrugged. "He said the attack's going to be tomorrow."

"Well keep it down a bit!" Ashley squeaked. "I don't want that freaky panther listening in! The Maximals might be younger than our group, but they're strong. They brought Megatron down, didn't they?"

"Megatron wasn't prepared for them!" the purple-haired Predacons fought back. "Techno-organic humans that carry the duty of Autobots was the _last _thing on his processor!"

"At least he's ready now," Noah chuckled. "He's even been against Bestial before."

"That got me thinking…" the red girl said. "Do you think we have a combiner form?"

"Trev said it's likely," Fawn answered. "Plus it wouldn't be fair if they had a combined form and we didn't. But it's still not fair that they have two extra ones and they can talk to Primus!"

"I say they're bluffing."

On the other side of the school, Cari couldn't help but listen to what they were saying. She passed it on to Andre, then he to Cody. Cody then called Brianna up on her cell phone after school to tell her the news.

"Anything more specific? Like when and where they'll attack?"

"They only said that it'll be tomorrow. They didn't say when. They might discuss it when they get back to their base, want her to listen in then?"

"You can't. Slyther will most likely put up a psychic wall to block her out or even hurt her if she tries to. All we have to do is sit back and wait."

"We've _been _waiting for four months now! The whole entire Decepticon army might be right in front of us! Like this Sedan I see in the parking lot. For all I know, that's not Eve's dad's car, that might be Ransack!"

"I don't know anymore, Nightfang. We might not even succeed when they attack. We might as well give up."

"We can't just give up! There's a world at stake here!"

"Save it for the Autobots." She hung up.

Cody stared at his phone for a while as if her voice would come back. He put it back in his pocket and stared into nothing to think what his cousin just said. Save it for the Autobots?

xXx

**_ I NEED REVEIWS!_**


	11. Prison Break

Chapter XI

Starscream was the first appear, of course, along with his brothers Skywarp and Thundercracker. They had so many questions to ask, starting with how Megatron came online in the first place. They believed so much he was dead and Starscream started taking command, hardly aware that such a thing as Predacons had existed. Only Shockwave was the one that maintain contact with them and had died when he came to Earth. The temporary leader was interested in who these Predacons were…and wanted to give them a hard beating for bringing back his enemy leader.

Megatron had snuck through to Washington D.C. with the helicopter mode the Predacons were happy to pick out for him. He fit in…sort of…and searched around through his holoform for a specific machine he desired. Luli and Fawn were chosen to follow him, just so he wouldn't get too out of character with his form. They spent hours walking around the Smithsonian until they had found it.

The _Nemesis_.

The old warship Megatron had lost at least a year ago. It was kept in Washington under the careful eye of their guards. Of course they didn't know anything about the Cybertronian technology, not even if the Maximals tried to explain it. Megatron was standing only nine yards away from his ship and right under seven security guards' noses.

Late at night, Skywarp came by and deactivated all security inside the Smithsonian. Megatron was free to walk inside and take the ship. The only problem he faced was a small human that radioed the president of the United States of America as soon as the _Nemesis_ lifted into the air and broke through the top of the building.

The death of the human race had begun.

* * *

Like Icefire had predicted, they couldn't stop the fight. What remained of the Decepticon army was now on Earth and the Predacons were even stronger, thanks to Megatron granting them an upgrade from the All Spark. They became full tech and left the Maximals weak in comparison. Just with Foxtrot and Phoenix they were defeated several times. They had no choice but to give in to the power and were enslaved as was the rest of the humans on Earth. Military had sent every kind of weapon to the Decepticons. Even show planes and airlines were in on it. But none had survived in the air and hardly any lived on the ground.

Plants and animals died, the sky turned red with fire, black with soot and lack of water. People killed people to fight for the other's food, because they needed or had to become cannibalistic. The sun no longer reached the planet and Megatron already began his harvest for energon.

All nine Maximals knew there had to be something that they needed to do and knew that Brianna had a plan. "Every solution has a problem" the saying goes. Because this problem was more difficult, more complex, that meant that it would be hard getting to the solution. They agreed to meet on their own time, if they ever got it.

They worked like the rest of the humans, but were given worse treatment for being Maximals. They were beaten down until there was nothing but blood smeared over their clothes at the end of each day and their muscles ached more and more. Brianna would look down the street and watch her neighbor's two kids being executed for not completing their duties. Brittany turned Tigress and attacked the prosecutor. She was then put under solitary for however much was necessary. And that was the last time Brianna had seen her sister.

They went through only a ten days of this; buildings in ruins, fire set everywhere, Decepticons and Predacons at every turn, dead bodies in hundreds. The world was slowly dying and the Maximals knew they had to hurry.

Brianna called in for a secret meeting in an old tree house that was spared after hours. All nine were afraid to go because of the watchful optics of the robotic armies. Once they settled in, they turned on a flashlight and kept the window shut and curtains covered.

"What's your plan, Bri?" Cody asked more quickly than he realized.

"Answer me this, guys. How did the Decepticons get here?" she said.

Jericho shrugged. "By flying here, how else?"

"By a space bridge," the dragon whispered with a smile wide on her face. "I went inside the _Nemesis _when the Predacons had asked for their own supply of food and I saw something through a crack in the door. It looked like a teleportation device and someone inside mentioned 'space bridge.' That's how the other half of the Decepticons got to Earth so quick!"

"What are you going at?" Cari shivered, afraid of the answer.

"Cody and I will sneak through while in the _Nemesis_, active the space bridge, then teleport ourselves to Cybertron!"

"That's crazy!" Andre shouted. The rest of the group told him to quit down when they heard a jet engine overhead. "How do you expect to get to Cybertron like that? We've never been there in our lives, the bridge is probably heavily guarded by Thundercracker and Lugnut, and do you even know the coordinates?"

"Andre has a point, Brianna," Aries chimed in. "This isn't just some scene in a movie where we can just walk in and get to where we're going. We have to think this through. We need more time."

"There _isn't _any time!" she snapped. "Earth's already going to Hell and we're being held responsible! We need to get to Cybertron quick and the only way through is a space bridge!" She eased a bit. "I bet my last crispy dollar that the Decepticons have the coordinates to Cybertron downloaded into the system. Since we're half of their species we can read their symbols and interpret which code is the one to the planet. It's just walking in there is what we need to figure out…"

"I know how," William whispered. "There are some humans on cleaning duty, to wash down the warship. You and Cody could switch a shift with someone and go in like that."

Brianna smiled. "You got that from _Prison Break_, didn't you? They switched roles to get into P.I. and busted a whole under the building to escape."

William sighed looked at an empty space with a smirk clearly seen below his nose. "Best show I ever seen."

* * *

The hard part was finding someone who worked the cleaning shift; easy part was blending in with the other workers to get to the space bridge. Of course Megatron had Blitzwing and Cyclonus watching the humans as they worked. Only a few times would one go get a drink while the other stayed put. Cody wanted to go ahead and find the pad to locate the coordinates to Cybertron, but Cyclonus had a good eye and Blitzwing, no matter how insane, was still smart enough to spot a human out of place. The Decepticon leader had picked the best mechs for the job.

One shot was all they had and the Maximal leader and second in command took it; Cyclonus had fallen asleep and Blitzwing went to find some more drinks. The workers started talking amongst themselves while Cody climbed up to the high pad and scrolled for the location. Brianna stayed under him as to not cause any rubbernecking. One missing is very unnoticeable, but two is along crossing the fine line of "ninja style" and "caught dead" (as William once put it).

Cody found the coordinates and immediately activated the bridge. A blue electric sphere appeared in the middle of the pincer-like bars and every human turned heads to look. Cyclonus woke up due to the loud humming and crackle of the bridge and just in time saw Brianna and Cody take on their other forms. He drew his sword but was too late as the Maximals jumped to the sphere, afraid that they were either hurt or set the wrong coordinate location to Cybertron.

xXx

Author's Note: Assignment! In review, try to predict what would happen when the Maximals appear to the Autobots on Cybertron.


	12. Oz

**FanFiction won't let me save Blurr's speech when it's clustered together, so I had to separate it.**

Chapter XII

Alarm rang as the space bridge started to activate by itself. Ultra Magnus ordered any guard possible over to it and see if a friend or foe was coming through. They didn't know what to expect and kept sensors on high alert to watch and wait, guns pointed at the blue sphere. Sentinel Prime was at the front of the ranks to hold the soldiers until he gave the signal to fire. A loyal Autobot named Blurr explained to him that the warp gate was tracing all the way to a near sector on an organic planet.

"Impossible!" Sentinel shouted to the mech. "Nothing organic has technology like ours!"

"But, sir if you would consider how many times we've been to other planets that are organic there is an infinite possiblity that the organic race coming through have accidentally activated the bridge set up there by a stray Autobot ship! So if you think about it, it's mainly our fault that --mmf!" Sentinel put a hand across Blurr's mouth to shut him up.

"Don't you be telling me about responsibilities," he growled. Blurr gave a quick nod and ran back to his post. The blue and orange mech kept an optic on the space bridge and saw two shapes coming out. He expected them to look ugly and nasty and drooling with a colored slime. But that was the opposite.

Icefire flew right out of the sphere in her alternate form while Nightfang came through in his own. Sentinel ordered to open fire, the guards obeyed. Half of them fired at Icefire, since Decepticons were believed the only thing that could fly. The other half shot at Nightfang while he quickly dodged each bullet. He roared something up at Icefire in his language and she gave an order back. The blue wolf growled, and did not attack.

"Stop! Cease your fire!" shouted an electronic voice behind him. All turned to see a red bot walk out and kneel down to Nightfang. Most knew that this was the Elite Guard scientist, Perceptor. He examined and scanned Nightfang for a while and his optics widened.

"We must get them to Ultra Magnus," he said monotonously. He motioned to Icefire for her to land and she did not hesitate to obey command. She knew all too well that she needed to follow orders on this planet, otherwise they wouldn't think twice about keeping her trapped here.

Sentinel followed, just to watch the newcomers, to what looked like a large conference room set up by a designer from _Star Wars_. Immediately one of them ordered the Maximals be cuffed, but Perceptor assured him that they were harmless. Ultra Magnus, in hearing the shouts and a few mutters of curiosity, walked in and took his position on a pillar.

"What are these?" he asked.

"Sir, I have scanned these life forms and half of their cells are composed of those similar to Cybertronian."

Ultra Magnus kept his gaze on the two blue Maximals placed before him. Icefire ordered Nightfang to transform, and as they did the four soldiers in position aimed their guns. Ultra Magnus almost commanded them to fire until he saw the dragon femme bow towards him. He knew that these creatures were smart to show respect and smiled a little.

"Do you two have names?" he said. Icefire only looked at him and tried to make her eyes tell she didn't understand what he said. "State your name, creatures." Nightfang whispered softly to Icefire, but she could not give him a reply. "They speak a language that differ from ours. Perceptor, can you upload our languages to their processors, or vice versa?"

"That would be a dangerous procedure, sir," the red bot inquired. "Half of them are organic and I do not know what a simple download might do to their organic cells. Perhaps kill them."

"They're here for a reason," the High Commander said. "I can tell that this was no accident." He looked at Sentinel. "Sentinel Prime, was there anything unusual when these things came through the space bridge?"

"None that I could see. But they refused to fight, sir."

"Obviously trying to earn out trust…This may just be a Decepticon trick."

Icefire's optics opened to limits. Animals were attuned to the atmosphere around them better than humans and she could feel the intensity getting stronger. She looked around frantically as troopers were being ordered to seize and send her and Nightfang to the cells. The wolf roared allowed while Icefire struggled to be released.

"_What the heck are you doing?!_" he shouted. "_We need your help! Our planet is dying! The Decepticons have control!_"

"_They can't hear us, Nightfang. We have a different tongue than theirs!_"

"_This sucks balls!_"

Stasis cuffs had no effect on them at all, thanks to their human halves, so Sentinel considered them to be more dangerous than usual. The other fact that freaked him out were their forms. He had never seen forms like theirs in his life cycle and just by looking he could tell that they were unstable creatures that needed constant surveillance. Icefire and Nightfang were placed in separate cells and chained with arms up, feet cuffed to the ground, and tails pinned down. The only way out were to be if they suddenly developed the skills of a ninja.

* * *

The crew of five were working on clearing a space bridge from mounds of tough rocks when they received news of new beings on Cybertron. The oldest, Ratchet, suspected it to be a load of scrap metal news that bots post just to get attention, but Optimus knew that not one form on their home planet would dare publish such urgent news as this. Their pictures streamed across and he quickly saw them as strong creatures. For a while he had asked Cliffjumper of the Elite Guard Troopers for some more help in clearing the space bridge; they had tried for weeks to get the rock and rubble removed. Perhaps they would allow the crew access to the techno-organic beings.

Bulkhead and Bumblebee agreed to the plan, happy that some more hands would pitch in so they wouldn't have to do so much work at a time. Prowl kept silent, like he mostly did, but Ratchet wasn't too sure about the idea. He noticed Icefire more than Nightfang and saw her as a Decepticon warrior instead of the human organic that hid inside the technical bodice.

"Optimus Prime to Elite Guard Command," the red mech said while Ratchet was still shouting the consequences of allowing Decepticons to work with them. The screen flickered to reveal Alpha Trion's acknowledgement.

"Elite Guard, Optimus Prime. What do you wish to speak about?"

"We've been asking for help for weeks now. This bridge isn't going to clear itself, sir. We were hoping if you could send the two creatures you caught as extra workers."

"I'll need to speak to Ultra Magnus about this. Stay online, I'll be right back." The screen went back to its windowed image to the never-ending space ahead. Ratchet smacked the red mech over the helm.

"You've got a blow out in your binary if you think I'm working with those things!" Ratchet complained.

"They may seem like violent creatures, but don't you believe in change, Ratchet? These things came from a whole other planet than Cybertron. Maybe they don't even know about the war at all. Just give them a chance."

The old veteran crossed his arms and glared. "I still think it's a bad idea! We've gone this far without the war, this might just start another one!"

"Yer just gettin' old, doc bot!" Bumblebee teased. "You jealous that new energon blood are gonna replace ya? Wah!" He dodged an incoming wrench from Ratchet.

"I am not! I've gone through a war that lasted half of my life cycle, I don't want to cause one that started on this very ship!"

Optimus put a hand on the medic's shoulder. "Give them a chance, Ratchet. They might not even be that dangerous as everyone thinks. It's just what they look like that makes you think that way."

Ratchet slapped the hand off and pointed a digit to Optimus' face. "I still don't want them even an inch from my body," he growled. "I've spent enough time with Decepticons, I want nothing to do with techno-organics." That said, he walked off to his quarters.

"Oh, yeah. The old mech's losin' it," Bumblebee commented.

"Optimus Prime." Alpha Trion appeared back on the screen. The red mech saluted towards his superior. "Ultra Magnus has granted you permission to take the techno-organics as laborers. Make sure they keep in their place; we don't need any more accidents."

"Yes sir. Thank you."

A few hours passed and the Maximals were sent over by a freight ship to the _Arc_. Optimus walked up to the pilot of the ship and he showed the mech to the Maximals. They were locked up as well as they were on Cybertron. Optimus stared in awe at the sleeping creatures. Their structure was similar to his own kind and the pilot told him that they could even transform, but they didn't transform into anything they had seen before, not even in records.

Icefire opened her optics from sleep and the first thing she saw was Optimus Prime staring right back. She widened her optics a little to seem more organic and kept the stare as if she was really playing the part of a true dragon. It only interested Optimus more and he wished he was able to speak to her.

"You know it was hard loading them up," said the pilot to Optimus as he held out his hand. "They put up a fight."

Optimus glanced over at him. "I doubt that, really."

"Alright, ya caught me. They didn't even budge a lick out of line. Just pay me and I'll leave these beasts in your care."

The red bot sighed and pulled out the chips owed. The pilot greedily took them and had two large bots come forward to haul the cages.

"That won't be necessary," Optimus chuckled. He inputted the code on the cell and walked inside to meet face-to-face with the dragon. She kept staring and made her eyes look innocent enough for him to unlock the cuffs. He did so and waited a while to see if she would do anything to harm him. She only nodded and walked out, stretched for a bit, then smiled at her comrade. Optimus saw the pout look on Nightfang's face and released him as well.

"Funny," the pilot chuckled. "They came through without a fight and even after they're caged they still won't even ball up a fist."

"They must want something from us, then, don't you think?" Optimus smiled.

"Sure, a bunch of stupid organics want something from us. Get real, deadbeat."

Optimus slightly growled at the pilot for calling him that. He may have been kicked out of the Elite Guard, but he was still allowed his rank, his great status. But still, the ones that were left in the Elite wanted to tease him and treat him like slag. Hopefully these new recruits wouldn't see him that way.

Optimus led the techno-organics into the ship as the pilot flew away counting his money. He first showed them their rooms so they could try to feel more at home (whatever it may have been). Immediately they felt comfortable and smiled at Optimus to show they were satisfied. He next gave them the entire tour of the base; storage, showers, engine, all the works. He decided not to have them work so soon so they wouldn't feel like slaves, which Icefire seem to catch and hugged him to show her thanks. The red mech only stood there when she let go and had nothing to wonder but what she had done.

He left the two Maximals alone to have a bit of quiet, but there were two curious bots standing outside of the door, listening to them.

"How long do you think we'll be here?" Nightfang asked.

"Hopefully not long. I feel terrible just by leaving my sister on Earth," the dragon sighed, looking down at the floor. "You've got two little sisters to worry about. And we all have Darkjaw and Goldwing to worry about."

"And Omega, and Alpha…Before I left I told Omega to take charge. Alpha threw a fit. Do you think I chose right?"

"For temporary leader? Yep. Jericho might abuse the power just to prove to Aries."

"Heh. Lord knows that's true."

Bumblebee whispered to his big green friend "What are they saying?"

"Beats me. Never heard a language like _that _before."

Nightfang's ears twitched as he heard them and turned his head to the door. Icefire sighed and asked who it was. Through his vision the wolf could see through the crack both the mechs staring right back. Bumblebee's optics widened as he knew why the wolf's head was turned and motioned to Bulkhead to run.

"They're gone," Nightfang chuckled. Icefire laughed along.

"We should expect it more often," Icefire said. "We're not in Kansas, Toto."


	13. Written

Warning: I was rushing quite a bit in this, especially in the last part.

Chapter XIII

"Father stop! You are killing her!" Ian shouted. He hadn't the strength to get up and fight. For two weeks the Decepticons ruled the earth and destroyed nearly all of it. This process made some of the humans crazy, including Theodore Thompson. He was stabbing his wife, to kill her, and get his share of food, so he called it now. His only son was there to try and stop him with no success.

"Once I'm done with 'er, yer next!" Theo shouted, putting the knife up to hihs wife's neck. "Every man fer himself now!" At that moment…

Theodore sliced his wife's neck.

The face of Isabelle held a bloody scream, eyes rolled backwards, and the head rolled towards Ian as if that was its deathly wish. The horrifying appearance almost made the young man vomit where he was, and the chill he received was enough to make his legs respond and run. His father chased after him, hoping that he would get his food.

Running down the streets of London at this time you would pass about two hundred working bodies in just a short amount of time. They would all see you being chased by a madman with a knife in his hand, and five out of eight would feel as if they had to help; two of those might actually help you. But those days were gone now, since the robotic aliens wouldn't let them stop in their continuous job. They had to stay in line and work. They did this only as to not get shot in the back. They wanted to live as long as they could, even if their lives were being controlled.

Ian ran around the streets as much as he could for about thirty minutes. He had no idea he could run that fast and was sure it was impossible to run that far--it was probably from all the work he did how he gained the muscular strength for it. He decided to put away the energy for the thought and convert it back to his legs. He would look behind his shoulder every now and again just to see if his father was still following him. He suspected that he gave up a long time ago; he was nowhere in sights. The next he heard was a missile headed straight for him and looked in time to react and dodge, making it hit the street. A black fighter jet stopped in midair and transformed into a Decepticon he had seen several times before.

"What the slag do you think you're doing, human!" he cackled. "Work's about a mega-mile away! Yer wasting your time here." He lifted his arm to shoot at the blue-haired man until a stray worker his him against the side of the mech's head with a rock. It didn't effect Skywarp much, but he turned even so.

"Leave, robo-farts!" the human child shouted to him. Skywarp held the null ray to the child and growled. Ian told the young one to run, but the child stood still, holding his ground and held his arms up. Ian wasn't sure how he could hear him, but the child said, "Run, Thompson."

At that same moment, Skywarp shot the child. He didn't scream, he didn't move. He sacrificed himself to save another. Taking advantage, Ian ran down into the subway tunnels to escape Skywarp's view. He heard the mech cursing in his own language above him and chuckled a little to himself.

The tunnels seemed pretty dim, excluding the broken light above flashing continuously. He looked at the walls to see graffiti from years and years ago and most of them newly made. They said things like "Curse the Maximals!", "Go back to the _Enterprise_, knob heads!", and some others he couldn't read; they were faded too well. Either way he knew they weren't anything good, especially he ones about the Maximals. In his own view he saw them trying everything they could to keep the planet safe, but they had failed because they were outrageously outnumbered. A few days ago he had heard word spread from America that two of the Maximals were gone. They didn't know where they ended up, but the humans wished they had taken people with them to escape this Hell.

That's exactly what Ian wished too. He did not want to stay a moment longer, waiting to die. There was nothing left of the planet, so why should he even bother? But a voice inside his head told him there was hope and trust. Hope everything would turn and end in a joyous and triumphant shout, and trust that the two missing Maximals were finding help.

Pushing away the thoughts for another time, he looked around for anything he could use as a torch to light the way down the tunnels. He found a piece of rusted iron on the ground and some oil spilled across the floor; an explosion waiting to happen. Ian took the iron piece and dipped a small part of the tip in the oil. Next he took a shred of his clothing and wrapped it around the iron in case the oil would drip down towards his hands. Deciding that the nearest fire was outside, he walked back up the stairs and looked to see if any Decepticons were out on patrol. He didn't dare check the streets, for a place as crowded as Ian's neighborhood the Decepticons would most likely choose to search by the skies. Once it was clear he ran to a car with a small fire by it and leaned his iron bar over it. The tip immediately caught fire and he ran back down the subway so no one would see the fire.

He jumped down onto the railroad tracks of the metro and looked down left. It was too dark for any man to see, but he trusted his spirit and his God. He took one step, then a minute later another, and again, and again, until he started walking for not even he knew how long.

* * *

Icefire and Nightfang hated the times of going to bed and waking up. On Earth it wasn't so bad because you could have a good eight hours. But on the Autobot ship? It was more like four. Someone announced it was time to get up, but Icefire groaned and turned to the side of her berth as Nightfang found something soft to put over his head to ignore the sounds. Bulkhead had to come in twenty minutes later and he pulled them by the tails to wake them up. Icefire shouted curses at him and Nightfang transformed, hair raising, and growled loudly at the green mech. Bulkhead had learned a lesson that day: Never pull a techno-organic's tail is they have teeth and claws.

As the two were walking around the storage area for anything they could eat, Prowl tried multiple times to offer some energon. Nightfang almost drank some, but Icefire told him their organic cells wouldn't be able to stomach it. Sad and hungry, Nightfang gave the cube back to Prowl, and the ninja replied back with a confused look.

"How can we survive up here if there's nothing to eat?" he asked.

"Beats me, but remember that survival video you saw in health class?" Icefire reminded. "Humans can go up to a week without food and/or water."

"But we're part tech, where does that get us?"

"Two weeks, then. More or less."

"I vote more."

Icefire chuckled a little and kept searching for some food. She figured it was pointless after looking for about an hour or so. As soon as she turned she saw all five faces of the Autobots staring at her. She didn't need to be psychic to know they were thinking "What the heck is she doing?" She would tell them herself, but her stomach did that for her when it growled. The Autobots' first react was to run away, since they never really heard that sound before from a techno-organic, or from any form of organic.

"Nightfang, start praying."

"For what?"

"That these guys get us home, that we can talk to them, and that we get some goddamn _food_!" She kicked something as she walked by the Autobots, then Optimus ordered Prowl to follow.

Knowing Prowl he could probably find some way to talk to the dragon. The ninja had a talent for "talking with nature", so he said. The dragon and wolf were more related to nature than the Autobots, so it shouldn't be much of a problem.

Icefire heard someone follow her and turned just in time to see Prowl try to jump and stick to the ceiling. She glared at him and put her hands on her hips. She pointed down the hallway as if to tell him to go away. Prowl shook his head, then she stuck out her tongue. After two minutes of staring at each other, Icefire kept walking.

"I hate this place," she mumbled. "Now I know how the monkeys feel at the zoo."

A few hours later all were called to clean up the ship. They had passed through a large sector above some abandoned organic planet and some of the material (slime) got onto the ship. Optimus thought it might've been interesting to see how the techno-organics would clean up a ship since they were as durable as Prowl. But as soon as the two saw how dirty the ship was, their jaws had dropped down to the ground.

"I haven't seen this much crap since I went to the dog park!" Icefire commented.

"I haven't seen this much crap in my _life_!" Nightfang whined, ears pointing downwards. He pointed shy finger at the ship. "We have to clean all that?"

The frost dragon nodded. The Autobots grabbed their share of sponges and buckets and left the kids standing there. Icefire stared at the pile of sponges left.

"Hey, you remember the Saturday morning cartoons?" she asked. "Where they would take the sponges and strap it to their feet?"

Nightfang's entire face lit up and immediately started tying a sponge to his foot, and one to the other. Ratchet caught them tying the sponges and growled. _Those are for washing, not walking! _he shouted in his head.

Once they were done, Nightfang grabbed a bucket and Icefire carried him to the top of the ship where Bumblebee was working. He stared at the two, waiting for them to do whatever they were going to do. Icefire opened some memory files to find some music and ended up to _Car Wash_. The wolf and dragon started skating on top of the ship, moving to the beat and singing along with it. A large smile formed on Bumblebee's face and he called Optimus to see.

"It better be important."

/_Trust me, boss bot! I think they found a better way to clean!_/

Optimus cut the link and climbed up to see what the yellow mech was getting all excited about. His optics widened and his mouth dropped slightly. He felt stupid not to think of cleaning the ship that way. He called the others up to try the same thing. Eventually the ship looked clean I no time.

"If we kept doing the same thing, we would've taken auto-cycles to finish it!" Bumblebee commented with enthusiasm.

"That was only the top part of the ship," Optimus said. "The worst section's at the bottom."

"Primus frag it!"

Things went back to the way they were…or about ten minutes at least. Nightfang made his own selection of music to move to. The Autobots were amused at their style of cleaning and found it more entertaining. Especially sine both the Maximals were moving in time to the beat and lip-synching the words. But it all stopped when Ratchet started yelling at them…So everything was quiet again.

Two hours they worked on the underside. Bumblebee was up on a ladder, collecting samples the doc bot said he needed to see if bacteria could be left on the ship. Icefire was about to take a break until Bumblebee lost balance and the bucket of slime fell on top of her.

"Brianna!" Nightfang shouted as he ran to her. "Are you okay?"

Bumblebee came down the ladder and stood next to Nightfang. Icefire slowly wiped the slime from her optics, then glared at Bumblebee. Her eyes seemed to get brighter with anger. The yellow mech laughed nervously and took a step back. She growled lowly and walked away to the showers. Bumblebee followed behind her to try to say he was sorry. For a while he tried getting her to at least look at him while she was trying to clean herself.

"Please? I didn't mean it! I tripped!" he said. She still didn't look. "You can't stay mad forever."

Feeling frustrated, Icefire wrote in Cybertronian on the wall next to her. Bumblebee looked closer and read it.

"Go away?"

She nodded and looked back to the wall in front of her. It took her a few seconds and her optics widened. She looked at Bumblebee, who stared back in a sad look. She wrote something else on the wall, he read it.

"Of course I can read that!" he said. "Why wouldn't I!"

Icefire slapped her forehead and turned off the showers. She dried herself off quickly and ran to the nearest computer in the control room. Bumblebee quickly ran after her. She typed in something to say to Bumblebee.

"Icefire? That's your name?"

The dragon squealed in happiness and ran out to get her cousin. She tugged at his arm until he finally acknowledged her.

"Dang, Brianna! What!" he said.

"I know how to talk to them!"

"How? We can't speak their language and you know it."

"We can't speak it, but read and write it!"

"Huh?"

"I should've realized this…In December I learned in my geography class that the human languages usually have a written and a spoken. If we can't speak it--"

"We can write it!" Nightfang's face lit up. "I oughtta slap you for not remembering that!"

"C'mon!" She dragged him up to the control where Bumblebee was still standing in confusion. Nightfang took his turn and wrote his name on the screen. The yellow mech looked at them with his eyes wide. The Maximals smiled and high-fived each other.

"PRIME! Come see this!" Bumblebee shouted. He ran outside the ship at full speed.

"We're going home!" Nightfang cheered.

"We're getting help!" Icefire squealed. "Home again, jiggety jog!"

xXx

Author's Note: "Jiggety jog", if you remember, was from the first book. And yes, the written language was a total blonde moment! "We're going home!"


	14. Suffer Well

Chapter XIV

Hours passed as Ian walked through the tunnels. The only light he had was going out and every sound that was made had him turn to look, just to catch a glimpse of a starving rat or water dripping from above. He would put his mouth under that water to quench his thirst, but it was not enough. By now it would take a lake to fill him back up.

He saw himself coming to the end of the tunnel and onto another station. Immediately he shouted in joy, flinching at the echo he created. A clatter was heard on the platform and he knew someone was there.

A voice shouted to him to go away, and he refused. From the sound of the voice, it was a girl about her teenage years, much like himself. He walked closer to get at least a glimpse of her. She was definitely a teenager; blonde hair stretching to her back, blue eyes looking at him, and wearing a dirty sky-blue nightgown. She glared at him and asked to go away once more. Again, he said no.

He looked to someone below her, wrapped tightly in a blanket. Half of her face was covered, as if trying to block something out. Ian asked what was wrong with her. The older girl figured she had no choice but tell him.

"She's ill," she said. "She's been sick since last month."

Ian walked up to the little girl and bent down beside her. He started to stroke her hair to tell her he was a friend. He asked for their names.

"I'm Rosamund Faraday," said the oldest. "That's my little sister, Harriett. She's only nine, I'm eighteen."

"You too?" he chuckled. "What month you born?"

"April."

"I'm older. Mine's in December."

She smiled. "Nine months difference," he said. "So what? Doesn't make you any smarter."

"Perhaps you're right." He changed the subject. "What have you been feeding her?"

"Anything I find."

"Which is…?"

"Scraps. Pieces of bread, drops of water, rat meat--"

"Rat meat's not good."

"You have anything better? Say so now, sir."

He looked down. "Ian," he said. "Ian Thompson."

The man could not help but think how terrible it was to see a little sister die slowly. There was not anything they could do to help her survive. All medication was lost in the confusion of the invasion and it was suicide to go above ground and find the right type and amount of food for the girls.

They were starving.

They were isolated.

They were all dying.

"Do have any food to spare me?" he asked calmly.

Rosamund had to think about it for a second. Right away anyone would have said no, but she went to church too often to turn him down. She even recalled a story where a man of God walked to a woman's house. Her son was gravely ill and she had hardly any bread; she fed it all to her son to keep him alive. The man said something to her about giving him the bread and in return she will receive more.

So believing the story, she gave Ian a portion of her food and some of her water. He accepted it and ate it. It gave him enough strength that he decided to go out to find more food. Rosamund begged him not to, but he figured since she did that little for him, he will do something better.

Her theory worked after all.

Hours later, when Ian came back, he had brought back enough food and water to fill a family of five. Rosamund gave half of the food to her sister and saved the rest for her and Ian to eat.

"The rats might smell the food," Ian said after a long period of silence. "They might decide to eat Harriett."

"Then I'll stay up and watch her," Rosamund said. She would not dare let a couple of rodents eat her sister alive.

"You won't be alone then," Ian smiled. He stroked her hair. "I'll watch her like she was my own sister."

Rosamund smiled back at him. "I've never met anyone as nice as you. Every guy I've met has been a knob head."

"Then you weren't looking in the right places."

She swore she was blushing. This guy was definitely someone she could get along with. It was true; all guys she met were jerks. They would treat women with the most disrespect and the guys that _were_ nice were taken.

"Are you single?" she asked, not knowing the words were out loud.

"Not anymore," he said, shying away. "I had a girlfriend…but I saw her die."

Rosamund's heart sank. "You _saw_ her…?"

Ian nodded. "They forced me to watch her die. They found us at the cliffs. We were trying to make our moments together a little more worthwhile before they could search for us."

"Worthwhile? Did you two…?"

He gave a slight glare to her. "No, we didn't make love. I can wait until marriage." He looked away and continued. "Once they did, they picked her up by the dress and held me down to the ground. The one holding me growled. He said 'Vermin see, vermin do. Let's have the girl go for a swim and s if the boy follows!' So they… (ahem) they threw her…into the water."

He waited for Rosamund to say something. Seeing as though she was not going to and only waiting to hear more, he pressed on.

"I wanted to go after her…To save her. But I knew I wouldn't survive the fall; I wouldn't be able to save her. I know it sounds awfully cruel when I say this, but it wasn't worth the jump. We've already lost too many. I can't have myself lost." He looked at Harriett. "And it's even more critical that we save the younger generation. They should've have to die while the old live."

Rosamund scooted closer and gave him a hug for comfort. He put an arm around her to give a hug back.

"Do you think we'll make it through?" she asked.

"Are you a Christian?"

"Yeah…?"

"Have you heard the term 'suffer well'?"

"A few times."

"Here's what I heard from when I was given the message. We all want pain to end. They way we end it today is by doing drugs or joining some club or finding a way to fit in; anything to get away from pain. Your parents fight and you beat something to take the sadness out on.

Here's an example of that pain. You see pregnant women, don't you? You always tell them how great it's going to be when the child comes and that it will grow and you'll be so proud of it. But what do you _not _tell her? The mood swings, the nausea, morning sickness, 'eating for two'… Because you know that for her it will be worth it all. She suffered through it, all of that pain, and something great came out of it. We have to go through a season of pain to get to our happiness.

I think that if we suffer through this genocide just a little bit longer, something great will happen. This death will end."

Rosamund started to cry. She had never thought that someone would keep faith in such a time as this. She thought it impossible. When Ian mixed religious faith, he made it possible.

He kissed her forehead. "Get some sleep, Rosa," he said. "I will watch over you both."

She nodded and closed her eyes, leaning her head against his steady breathing chest. She dreamed of a day when the war was over and the Earth at peace. She hadn't had that dream in weeks. She probably would've never had that dream if Ian had not come. She had two theories. One; an angel sent him to her. Two, Ian was an angel himself.

_I will watch over you both._

He was an angel.

xXx

Author's Note: Some hope for Earth.

I didn't bother to change the scene over to Cybertron because it would ruin the "hopeful/faithful" mood. You'll see the bots later. CHAP SPOIL! You will see Sentinel Prime! Imagine his sass towards us Maximals! X3


	15. The First Test

I suck! DX This is the only chapter I've uploaded all summer long! And school's starting next week!

* * *

Chapter XV

"Orders are that they stay on your ship, Optimus," Sentinel growled. "If you disobey orders, you're slagged out of business for good. You'll be on the streets with the rest of your team."

Optimus glared and used a code towards Icefire's processor to interpret what the blue mech was saying (She called it "telepathic texting") without Sentinel knowing. After the dragon was done reading, she snarled at Sentinel. What she wanted was for him to jump at the threatening sound, but he barely flinched. Instead he looked straight at her and smirked.

"I'm about to kill him," she muttered to Nightfang. "He still thinks we're weak."

"Weak?" the wolf scoffed. "He really thinks that?"

Icefire studied Sentinel's physical appearance while he was still arguing with Optimus about letting the Maximals come into the Elite buildings. She gave her report to Nightfang, sounding a little hopeful.

"He's a jock," she said. "All muscle, no brain."

"Maybe I didn't make myself clear," Optimus said. "These two have explained fully why they're here, and I think Ultra Magnus needs to hear it. It's a level one emergency."

"Level one?" the Elite Guard laughed. "I think it's up to me what's level one and what's not."

"Prime?" Icefire said, nudging his shoulder. "Could you tell him that's he's not even of the mental requirement to judge that matter?"

"Maybe later…" He turned back to Sentinel. "Let us talk to Perceptor, then. Or Cliffjumper."

"No one gets in without my say so!"

"Fine then." He looked at Nightfang. "I heard you're good with dreams?"

Nightfang smiled and the dragon gave him the order to go ahead and place several "disgusting" creatures in his mind. To Sentinel it was like the creatures were things that would kill you if you touched it, but all they were were just some ducks Nightfang made that were up to the officer's waist. Sentinel begged for a good ten minutes until Nightfang finally dropped the illusion.

"I'll have you court marshaled!" he said, pointing to the wolf. "You're here for Decepticon reasons! I have proof now!"

"Sentinel Prime?" came a monotonous voice from behind. All looked to see the red scientist staring curiously at them. "What seems to be the matter?"

"These gear heads are trying to get into the base."

"With proof!" Bulkhead spoke up. "Icefire told us herself."

"Icefire?"

Bulkhead pointed a digit at the dragon. At the mention of her name, she straightened her pose and held her chin up to seem more civilized than what the robots had taken her for. Perceptor nodded his head and ordered for Prime's team and the Maximals to enter. Dumbfounded, Sentinel glared at them as they walked by. Bumblebee was the last one following and stuck his glossa out at him as he walked by, a merry smile on his face.

"Why are you here, Optimus Prime?" Perceptor asked as he led them to the medical room.

"We've found a way to contact these techno-organics. They told us why they're here and we think Ultra Magnus should listen."

"To arrange a meeting with Ultra Magnus, you need to speak to several other officers before you can speak to the commander."

Icefire groaned quietly and Nightfang slapped a hand to his forehead. It felt as if they had to go through a whole season of frostbiting winters before they could get back to Earth, but they were afraid it might be too late already.

Perceptor left them in the med bay while they all discussed how they should go against the other officers. No one had an idea expect one; tell them everything you know.

Nightfang and Icefire stayed in the same room, thinking of what proof to come up with that they were intelligent, and something that would impress Sentinel Prime (or "Sarge Teta-Chin" as Bumblebee called him). They tried to think of things that they were taught in school, but that seemed as if it were toddler training compared to what Cybertronians could accomplish. Whatever was coming to mind was taken as something primitive.

"God, can't we just save our planet without this crap?" the dragon groaned, dropping sideways onto the berth.

"Who said it would be easy?" Nightfang mumbled. "Sure Marvel comics makes it seem easy. Face it, this is real! And these guys are adults; they'll never listen to some kids, techno-organic or not."

"We're just kids, huh?" Icefire said, looking at him. "We're the kids that kicked the aft of Megatron. We're the kids that saved our planet once, hell we're doing it again. We're the kids that made it all the way to Cybertron! Heck, if we're just kids, they're just adults! If they want us to listen to them, they gotta listen to us too!… Problem is, we have nothing to give."

"That's just fantastic…" Nightfang remarked and laid down on the floor, staring up at the ceiling. "There has to be _some_thing we can do!"

"Maybe we'll know when the time comes."

"You better be right."

Optimus Prime came in the next morning to make sure they would get up and get ready to see one of the superiors. He told them that he was called Alpha Trion and he was the eldest Elite Guard members known to their history. One mistake towards him and they would off back to Earth to die with it.

It was tough even trying to get out of the berth. Mainly because Cybertronians had no organic food so they could not feed the Maximals. They were getting weaker and worse angrier with every hour. Icefire had placed in a request to at least find an organic planet they could hunt on, but Sentinel Prime did not bother to fill in the request.

The moment they reached the meeting hall, both Maximals felt threatened by all the glances they received from Primes standing on pillars. Some of them had glared and Nightfang could hear them whisper "These filthy things should be all the way on a dead planet. Let them rot there." He tried hard not to cry out in fury, and it did not help at all when his stomach started to growl again.

Optimus Prime stopped them in front of a platform facing the tallest pillar and waited as Alpha Trion finally revealed his face to the Maximals. For a while he stared at them, optics narrowing thinner and thinner each minute. Icefire automatically assumed he was waited for something and bowed the lower half of her body to him in respect. Nightfang got the hint and did the same. Optimus looked up to the old Elite and thought he saw a smile. Alpha Trion spoke to Optimus and he then passed it to the Maximals.

"He says you passed the first test," he said. "But you didn't even do anything."

Icefire straightened her back and smiled. "He wanted to know if we're able to identify who our superiors are and see what form of respect we give to them," she said. "He needed to see how civilized we are."

"Oh. Maybe that's why it was so easy," Nightfang said. "Hey, can you ask him if he knows the closest planet with meat? I'm dying of hunger here!"

Even when they reached another planet they were still under supervision by Perceptor. The scientist took this as an opportunity to observe how Maximals could obtain their food. He followed them until they reached a herd of animals that looked like a mix of a horse, rabbit, and a tiger with a shaded color of blue to match the foliage around them. Nightfang chased from behind to make them run so they could pick out the two weakest and slowest to eat. Minutes after, Icefire, who was above, dove down to the largest one in the back and grabbed it by its back, then came back up to give Nightfang room to get his kill. A young one was nearly tripping over its own hooves and fell down, giving up and letting Nightfang take its life. Perceptor found it most violent but also a way of teamwork. The wolf had chased them to pick their meal, letting the dragon find its own. The scientist considered this another task they performed and recorded it on a data pad.

"Two things done in less than half a day," Nightfang sighed. "This is goin' a lot easier than I thought!" He swallowed a piece of meat and grabbed another.

"Don't be too sure," said the dragon sitting next to him. "It's like a video game; easy at first, but then it gets a lot harder."

"So much for encourage and support."

Not even a second had passed by when a group of younglings came into the room following the big-chinned jerk himself. They looked at the Maximals in wonder, but Sentinel Prime said "Don't waste your optics on these guys. They're a bunch of stupid organics who don't know their aft from their face."

Icefire hinted the sarcasm in his voice and clenched her fist. She stood up and asked if the younglings knew English yet. He said "Yeah, but what's the point?"

"Because I want them to hear this when I say Sentinel Prime, do you have something miniscule between your legs? Because it seems to be the reason why you try to act 'bigger.'"

The group of younglings and Nightfang went in an uproar of laughter, leaving Sentinel feel embarrassed and the dragon smirking.

"N-No!" he said.

"Hesitation says yes," she purred.

"Who are you to insult a superior?"

"The way I see it, you're not much of a superior if you don't start acting like it. You see how it feels to be made fun of? We have something called 'the Golden Rule,' but people tend to forget it. It states 'Do onto to others what you would have done onto yourself.' In other words, you make fun of me, I make fun of you as well. But I guess that wouldn't make it through to you. You'll still be the same dip wad tomorrow as you are today."

"Don't think I won't report this!"

"I don't care! Primes shouldn't be acting this way towards an honored guest!"

"Honored my aft!"

"Honored because I show more respect in five seconds than you ever will in your life."

"Then respect me!"

"Why should I? Apparently I don't get the same treatment."

Sentinel's face turned color to purple with the flow of anger boiling in his tubes. He marched off with half the group, though the other half decided to stay with the Maximals. One of them, a green colored boy, sat in front of Icefire.

"I'm Gunsalt," he said."

"Icefire." "She held out her hand. Gunsalt only stared at it. "Where I'm from we clasps hands and shake. That's how you say hi."

"Physical contact?"

"No, you throw food at each other. Yes, physical contact."

"I'm confused."

"Brianna," Nightfang whispered, "I don't think he even knows what that saying means."

"I've got a feeling this is gonna be a long day…"

The rest of the group sat in front of the Maximals and talked for nearly hours. Both Maximals were doing more of the talking, teaching them about their culture and other ways of Earth. But when the younglings heard that there were a lot more cultures different than the Maximals' on Earth, they were astounded. How can one small planet fit that much? And even the population of the planet was incredible. It was enough to fit three more planets. All the same, the Maximals realized that their planet was more unique than they thought. Their everyday things were treasures to these Cybertronians.

Time came when they had to leave and the two Maximals stared at the group until they were out of sight.

"So, what're we gonna do tomorrow?" Nightfang asked.

"I've come up with something."

"Like what?"

"Did you noticed something when we were washing down the ship a week ago?"

"No?"

"The music. Cybertronians don't have music."

xXx

Author's Note: I know everyone else mouths off Sentinel Prime in their stories, I just wanted to recap!


	16. Truth is Power

Y'all missed me? I would overload your heads with excuses, but you're here for the story. ;) I need to get this thing back up to speed. But I want to make this one claim:

The Seekers have their **G1** personalities. I don't feel like having a vain Thundercracker, a kiss-ass Sunstorm, or even a confusing Ramjet with his lying.

Any character that has not truly been displayed in Animated or given their personality (example: Wheeljack, the big guy without a line) will be considered a G1 Cybertronian with an Animated appearance. (So 'Jack would look like G1, not whatever Animated did to him.)

That is my announcement. I have crossed continuities before and it played out rather well. I can do it again. Remember, the story is still in 2010.

* * *

THE STORY THUS FAR (so you don't have to read it over again): With Megatron gone, the Maximals have no other worries than a few leftover and angry Decepticons and obsessed fans and paparazzi. But it turns out Megatron is not gone at all; his body was scattered across the world. With the help of his new group of Predacons, they piece together the warlord's body for him to take control of Earth. The Maximals fail in trying to stop this and now Earth is invaded with Decepticons and Megatron has the All Spark! Icefire and Nightfang sneak through the Decepticons' space bridge to get Autobot help, but the two have to convince the Council that humans are worth saving and fast before Earth meets its final day.

* * *

Chapter XVI

"Music? You can't be serious." Nightfang gave her a look of uncertainty. Music was so common on Earth that he figured it must be popular everywhere else. "How do you know if they do or don't have music?"

"Have you heard a single note since we got here?" Icefire stated. "I walked down a hall yesterday humming the _Star Spangled Banner_ and a guard looked at me like I was possessed or something. He's never heard music before."

"And your plan is...?"

"We could sing for the Council."

"Now that just sounds stupid," he muttered.

"Not for them! Listen, Cody, we have something they don't. They think of us as a lower specie and this might be our chance to upgrade to one that can be respected." Even at the mention of respect made her think of the mega-chinned moron she wished she could punch just to get it out of her system. "Come on, just a teeny song."

The wolf sighed. "What're we gonna sing?"

"Not a nursery, that's for sure."

"Then what?"

"We'll think about it, alright? We're not due back until, what, tomorrow?"

She thought about telling Optimus, but she wanted to see the look on his face along with all of the other Autobots. She thought that maybe Sentinel might be at least a little surprised, but as hard-heartened as Rameses during the ten plagues. It was probably about the time she should stop thinking about Sentinel's opinion, since she knew it was unimportant and the only opinion that truly mattered belong to a council. And the big-chinned football coach was not a part of any council as far as she was concerned.

But there was one person she thought would be worthy enough to tell. He was Prowl's friend and she was introduced to him not too long ago. She told him what she was going to do through her "telepathic texting."

"That's a lost art 'round here, actually," said Jazz. She felt better that at least one Cybertronian had a lazier accent that she was used to, even when it came into writing. "Cybertron used ta have singers. Dunno what happened. You really got singin' on yo planet?"

"Not only that, we have different categories of it," she explained. "I thought you might be interested because your name is one of the categories; Jazz."

"Jazz is a type'a music, huh?"

"I'm planning on singing in front of the Council. Maybe they'll appreciate my partner and me a little more if we bring back what was lost to them."

"I'll tell ya right now, Miss 'Fire, knowin' those old piston-heads, you'll have no problem with their support."

And that's exactly what had happened. Before she presented herself, she begged Perceptor for the council members and herself to trade languages; on her end, to upload English and download Cybertronian, and vice versa for the members; so there was no silent communication between all of them when she presented herself. He agreed and Optimus Prime's team, Sentinel Prime, Jazz, Perceptor, whoever was involved with the Maximals could now understand English. One the day she gave herself to the council, she sang a sweet lullaby in front of the council the next day; they were soothed and awed and were happy that this seemingly lower specie had knowledge of such a grand skill that had not been around since before their time. What shocked them even more was when Icefire had told them every single being on her planet could sing and every day they heard songs, with or without lyrics. They seemed slightly confused at that, so Nightfang helped and started thumping a beat onto the wall. Jazz bobbed his head to it and Bumblebee's foot moved to the tempo. Several others around them moved a little to the simple beat. When the wolf stopped, a voice in the crowd yelled out.

"Just because you can sing and beat on stuff doesn't make you any more special," Sentinel blurted out.

Both Maximals knew this would happen, and Icefire said in a respectful and somewhat annoyed tone, "Sentinel Prime, I appreciate your input." That was all she had said and she said it with a smile, which caught the blue officer off-guard. Nightfang swear he could hear a chuckle radiate from a few council members.

"It _is _surprising to us that you possess the talent to sing, Icefire," said one of them, "but I'm afraid this only slightly gives you more support from our end. We would love for song to come back into this world, but not enough to give you false help."

"False help? Sir?" She quickly added "sir" as she tried to remember manners. Then she knew that they were not fully informed on her home planet's life forms. "I'm sorry I should have said this a long time ago…" She hung her head slightly and spoke up so the floor would not catch and soften her voice. "Earth is full of life. There's more than a million, maybe even billion, types of life there. The most dominate one, the one I come from, is being destroyed and used as labor under the Decepticon command."

"Then why do you not fight back?" said a different member, who seemed to be the oldest. "You seem like a strong techno-organic, and you're a child of your race."

"That's because this is not my true race. Now before you ask questions I'll explain." She looked up at them, all eagerly waiting to hear what she had to say. "I was not always a techno-organic. I used to be full flesh, even Nightfang was once. I changed because—" She was not sure if she wanted to mention the All Spark or not. She did not want the Autobots to go in just because a powerful artifact was there; she wanted them to go because they felt humans were a special race that deserved to be saved. "We both had changed due to an accident. We don't remember what… But I do know this. I can show you what our race is like; we can revert back into it."

"No, don't!" Nightfang grabbed her arm. "We can only breathe here because we're part tech. It might not be the same if you turn into a human! Don't do it!"

"You'll take of Brittany for me, then, won't you?"

His ears flattened back and a soft whine emitted from his mouth. Icefire rubbed the back of his ear and said "Don't worry, Cody. I'm doing this so we can all keep on living. If I don't survive this, you are the next Maximal leader. Be sure to kick Ironwing's ass for me." She turned back to the council members, took a few steps forward, relaxed herself, and said in a lecture-hall voice that could be heard even down the hallway "My name is Brianna Nicole Summers. I am a human."

Then a soft blue light shined from her body and shrank as she transformed back into her true self and the Cybertronians all around her stared in amazement.

xXx

Don't freakin' worry, I'm working on the next chapter right now. I need to get this story DONE. Over with! It's been two damn years! Time for the (not so) endgame!


	17. In Memoriam

I want to announce that I have new designs for the Predacons, and they look so much more bad-butt than they did years ago. Go to frostedicefire DOT deviantart DOT com and look in the gallery for them. I have a whole folder for Pred OCs and another for Maxi OCs.

* * *

Chapter XVII

She opened one eyes first, then the other one slowly as she took in how large everything really was. Just looking up at the council in their high pedestals was like staring at ten enormous pillars that you could never see the end up. It made her real dizzy.

"You're still alive!" Nightfang said as he transformed into a wolf and nuzzled at her side. Brianna looked at herself and could not believe it. She was clothed in her worker disguise; a gray baggy shirt with blue baggy jeans and boots to match. She still had her blonde hair wrapped into a low ponytail and her chest still moved with the breath of life.

"Yes!" she cheered. "Freakin' yes!" She hugged Nightfang's neck. "Dude, I'm still alive!"

"I know!"

"I can still see my sister! She won't have to take any of my stuff!" Both of them laughed. Brianna looked at Sentinel first, thinking he was going to say something. "Yes, Sentinel, I'm weak. But as all of you as witness, my spirit is strong."

"HOW THE FRAG ARE YOU A HUMAN?" he screamed.

"Calm down, Sentinel Prime," Ultra Magnus said, speaking for the first time since the meeting had begun. Brianna forgot that he was still there. "Perhaps the technological properties of her Maximal form have allowed her to live without any gases."

As the session went on, Nightfang turned back into Cody to show he was also a part of the human race. They explained to the council that this was the specie that had lost to the Decepticon race. They were not powerful enough in any way, shape, or form to win against an army of Decepticons. That was why they snuck their way through a space bridge to find help and the only help they could get was from the ones who had beat them before: the Autobots.

"And already over half the planet might be dead," Cody said. "Right now me and Brianna are prayin' that are families are still alive." He looked at her with a slight frown, wondering if his sisters were even still able to walk.

"If there was a time to send Autobots to Earth, now would be a _really _great time," Brianna said. "When we left the sky was turning from blue to orange with all of the fires around, people eating other people, food going bad, millions starving, buildings destroyed; we were fricking lucky that they actually didn't cause a lot of damage or we'd be going back fifty years with all of the destroyed technology!" A life without a computer, she was thinking. That would suck for this day and age. "We don't have a lot of time. Megatron is killing all of us, and the only ones who can save us are you, Ultra Magnus, and your military!" Magnus' optics brightened. He must have felt complimented. "The longer we stall, the more people that die. I will bet that this entire time that we've been talking that over fifty humans have already died. Imagine that if it was on Cybertron; fifty people dead within the hour, every hour, for two weeks, almost three now." The council had all looked at each other and muttered agreements. "We're a smart and passionate race, Ultra Magnus. We're a lot like Cybertronians. Sentinel Prime, if you say one damned word against me I'll turn back into a dragon and freeze your face shut." The blue officer stood back. How did she know he was going to say something? She looked back at the Council. "And once the Decepticons are through with our planet, how many more do you think are going to die before he's back home on Cybertron?"

That sent waves of conversation throughout the room. Bumblebee and Bulkhead started to tremble, Prowl (as usual) looked calmed but though of the consequences, Optimus Prime's face looked frightened, and Ratchet had looked completely terrified from remembering his war days.

"She is right, my brothers," Ultra Magnus spoke. "If Megatron is indeed alive, he'll use every advantage he can get to take Cybertron back. We must devise an army and deploy to Earth." He looked at Brianna and Cody. "Where is Earth located?"

And there the game ends! The two humans looked at each other nervously. Cody was the first to speak.

"Um, we don't actually know…"

"Thing is," Brianna added, "we don't have the proper technology to send even unmanned technology outside of our own solar system. For all we know, what we've seen so far is not even or own solar system! We didn't even know there were really other aliens out there until very recently. In short, we can't pinpoint where our planet is."

Ultra Magnus sighed. "Do you at least know the galaxy?"

"Dude, Magnus sir, we call our galaxy the Milky Way. I highly doubt that you call it the same thing." Cody started chuckling. "If you can give us picture of different systems in this galaxy first, that would be great. We could identify where Earth is."

After thirty minutes of looking at stars, Brianna was just about _this _close to taking a nap. She knew outer space was huge, but all of the white dots started blending together and looked the same. Then finally she saw an image of the familiar Sol system she always saw at school, but it was backwards. That did not matter to her, as long as it was the same place.

"Right there!" she pointed to the screen. "The multi-colored planet! Third rock from the sun! That's Earth." She studied the image a bit more and her enthusiasm went away. "We got to get there. _Now_."

"What's the rush?" Bumblebee had dared to ask.

"Canada's turned grey and Greenland's starting to look like it's going underwater. There's hardly any white clouds; they're all greyish and black. And part of China's turned red!" The Autobots in the room all stared at each other in confusion. What the slag was this crazy organic talking about? "The Decepticons are changing the planet faster than I thought. If we don't get there as soon as possible, there might not be a planet left to save! Pack up your crap and let's hightail it home!"

Sentinel Prime has quickly devised a group, which Brianna felt that she had to go over in case he assigned the weakest platoon to Earth. She was happy to find out that all of the soldiers were well-trained for the job. She even told Sentinel himself that she was impressed. Sentinel merely smiled and bragged that he always had the best teams. Brianna decided that was just his way of saying thanks. After that, Sentinel had even made sure he downloaded English into his system and the soldiers', since they were going to a place that spoke a language entirely different from Cybertronian. Brianna gave them all a speech on how delicate humans were, so "Once we get there, our first priority would be to evacuate them to a safe location so they don't die. One accidental step is all it takes to kill a human and Earth's already dropping in that population. Now, the Decepticons are placed all over the world, but Megatron has built his center right here." She pointed to a hologram of Earth and had it zoom in to her home town. "This city has the largest population of Decepticons, and even more so it has the Predacons. The Predacons are mean, fully teach beasts that'll rip your insides out." She heard a few gulps and everyone's optics had widened. "You can't fight the Predacons. I don't care how tough you _think_ you are, even if you really _are _the toughest out of the whole Autobot army. The smallest Predacon will burn your… aft right off your body. Your best shot is to defend yourself and call on me, Nightfang, or the other Maximals you'll meet. We'll take care of the beasts and you'll take care of the Decepticons."

* * *

Ian slowly woke up to the sound of sobbing. He could not tell where it was from, since the underground station echoed it across the walls. He turned his head to see Rosamund kneeling over a pile of white sheets, hands up to her eyes to stop the tears. The man stood up and walked towards her, then he noticed something. He looked at the empty bench.

"Rosa?" he said. "Where's Harriet?"

"Sh-She's dead, Ian...!" she cried. "My poor little sister is…! Oh, God, why did she have to go!"

Ian sat next to her and gave her a hug. He petted her wild, filthy hair as he tried to calm her down. But he could not help himself; he hated to see women cry, so he cried along with her. He had never known the child but he tried to keep her and her older sister alive through the rough times and it was all for naught.

"It was her time to go, Rosa," he whispered. "You will see her again someday, when it is your time, too."

"But, Ian… she was so young; God can't have taken her!"

"I'm sorry, Rosa. There's nothing we can do now but pray her a safe journey to where she belongs."

Rosamund looked at the white sheets that covered her poor little Harriet. She had been sick since the beginning of the Decepticon invasion and a doctor was hard to find. She did not know what kind of sickness she had, so she did not try and medication for it. What if she had given her the wrong one? It probably would have killed her sooner.

"We have to," Ian muttered. "We have to bury her."

"Ian, I can't!" Rosamund sobbed. "She was my sister!"

"We can't leave her here, in a tube station. She deserves a burial, no matter the outcome."

"F-Fine…"

During the night, Ian and Rosamund had snuck their way into the darkness and out miles away to the country. Through the moonlight they could still see the last breath of life in the weak fields as patches had shimmered green. Even though there was not much of it, it gave both of them hope that it had the chance to be reborn and grow back into the beautiful hills they once were.

"Here's a spot," Ian said, sticking a shovel into wet ground. Of all the places he chose…

"Why not dig somewhere easier?" Rosamund said. "Like where the dirt is dry?"

"So Harriet can help the plants grow. We can't put her where the land is dead; it'll just make her…" He could not find the right word without upsetting himself and Rosamund. "We have to put her where there's life left, so she can give it more life, so the grass can grow. It's time for her to give back the life this world gave her."

Rosamund looked away to the brown hills and said "We used to come play out here. We danced, we sang, we picked flowers, we pretended to be lost princesses… She told me that she did not want to be buried in a coffin. She said 'Put me where I can touch this place forever. I won't forget it when I'm an angel, I shan't let my body forget it either. Promise me?' And I made that promise to her." More tears flowed down her cheek and onto dead grass. She looked at the sky, expecting to see her sister's face drawn into a cloud, smiling down at her. All of those happy memories were in the past and it was time for her to move on. "I won't forget her, Ian."

"She would be proud of you." He handed her the second shovel. "You're letting her be a part of what she wants. A part of the times you two had together."

"Yes… My dear Harriet…" The wind picked up, howling and making the grass rustle. Rosamund felt as if a hand had grabbed her torn dress and tugged on it, telling her to do something. She turned away to the moon, held the shovel upright, and began to sing in memory of her best friend.

xXx

I have a little sister, as you know, so I cried when I made this last part. And honestly, I want my burial to be like that. I don't want to rot in a box; plant my happy self in the ground and grow an oak over me. I'll be gladly feeding it.


End file.
